Evanescent
by R.J.North
Summary: Alex thought things would get back to normal when she got her brothers and friend back. But as life goes on things aren't completely right. What's wrong? Is there anything Alex can do to make it right? Part 4 of the Guardian Saga.
1. The Long Ride

Okie dokie. Here's chapter one. The guys aren't really in this one. It's just some one-on-one Alex/John time. I figured I'd do something light to ease into the season. Hope you enjoy. Please review!

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Chapter 1  
"The Long Ride"

It had been a couple days since Alex had returned back to Earth with her terrapins and Master Splinter. When they landed in the lair, Alex found her brothers and Fred there, all unconscious. April, Casey and Leatherhead were frantically running around the lair not really knowing what to do to help the boys. When they arrived, it scared the crap out of them. Then the two older humans and the largest mutant had the injured to freak out about.

They finally decided it was best for them to all head up to Casey's grandmother's place up in the Hamptons. It was a quite peaceful place for them to all heal up and relax. April and Casey took the van and the trailer with the guys in it while Alex called John to help bring her, her brothers and Fred.

The car ride was eerily silent. For most of the ride John didn't take his brown eyes off of the road. His lips were pierced together and his brow knit together. Alex could tell Blake was freaked out about the events she had told him about, her injuries and the unknown people in the back of his car (now all dressed in street clothes thanks to Casey). All of which were unconscious; three were seated in the back seat (her brothers) while Fred was in the open aired trunk of the SUV.

"You almost died," he finally said.

"Yeah," Alex sighed.

"Yeah?" he repeated. "_Yeah_? That's all you can say to that?"

"What do you want me to say?" Alex asked calmly. She turned her head away from the window of the passenger's side and to John. "That I'm sorry? That I regret my actions? I'd be lying if I did.

"I got them back, John," she said. "My brothers will be able to go back to their old lives now. Fred can be a normal kid again! And most of all we stopped the Shredder; an alien that killed about _4.2_ _million_ _innocent_ _people_, John! I'm not sorry about what I did because we did good. I'd do it again too. And if I died, then so be it. I think it was worth saving millions more lives."

John sighed. "I know," he said. "I know. You're right. I would have done the same thing. It's just…"

"You were worried," Alex finished for him.

John shook his head, his grip on the wheel tightening so much that his fists turned white. "Worried? Try _petrified_!"

"I'm sorry," she said. "I may not be sorry for my actions, but I never want to purposefully hurt you, John. You know that, right?"

"Yeah," he said. "I know. And I'm proud of you, you know that?" He ruffled her hair, causing her to wince as he hit part of the bruise on the side of her head. "Sorry," he said before continuing. "And I'm glad you got your brothers and friend back."

"Thanks," she said with a small smile.

"Not to make this all about me or anything," John said, "but now that you've got all three of your older brothers back, does that mean you don't still need one more around?"

Alex raised a brow, completely confused. "John, you think I'd abandon you?"

"Well, we're not actually related and you do have your family back," he started to say.

"_John_," Alex said, stopping him. "I'm not going anywhere. You're stuck with me for the rest of your life, Blake!"

John smirked. "Good, I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Oh," Alex said. "I've been meaning to ask you something."

"Shoot, Firecracker," he said.

"What the heck was up with you checking out Ms. Parker?" she asked.

"What are you talking about?" John asked.

"Oh, don't play dumb!" Alex laughed, groaning right afterwards because of the discomfort it caused her. "I saw you do it!"

"I wasn't _checking her out_," he protested. "I was checking her _over_ to make sure she wasn't _hurt_. That's all!"

"Yeah, I _so_ don't buy that," Alex said. "You were checking her out. Period."

"Fine!" he admitted. "Can you blame me?"

"Nah, she is pretty," Alex agreed.

"Pretty? Yeah, but more like she's rocking the whole _sexy librarian_ thing," John corrected. "I'm telling you if I had her as a teacher I would be teacher's pet, if you get what I mean. That thought was stuck in my head the rest of the day!"

"_Ew_!" Alex gagged. "Mental image not necessary!" She shivered. "Ah, dude, _scarred_ for life!"

"Get used to it, Alex," John said. "You're growing up. This is what you have to look forward to. Men and their hormones." The second he said that his face contorted. "On second thought, the moment a guy looks at you, I'll kill him."

"John!"

"What?"

"Three overprotective older brothers and now an honorary overprotective older brother? I'd hate to imagine if the guys found out someone was interested in me," Alex said, shaking her head. "I'm never going to get married!"

"No, we just have to approve of him first," John said. "And no sex until after you're thirty!"

"John!"

"What?" he asked. "Hey, no hitting the driver! What have I told you?"

"A lot of things?" Alex said wisely.

John rolled his eyes. "You are such a pain, Firecracker!"  
"Yeah, but you love me," Alex said.

"Why do I love you again?"

"Because I have a _charming_ personality," Alex laughed, ignoring the pain. "That and I kick butt!"

"You are such a weirdo," he laughed.

"I never claimed anything different," she said. "But back on topic! You're going to have competition if you want to go out with Ms. Parker."

"Who said anything about going out with her?" he asked.

"I did," Alex said. "I can tell you're interested."

"So what if I am?" he retorted. "I mean, she's obviously intelligent and extremely good looking."

"Don't forget _clumsy_," Alex said. "You could save her from herself and be her knight in blue polyester!"

"I'm not an officer anymore. I don't wear the uniform."

"Technicality."

"That's enough out of you."

"Nuh-uh, we are not done talking about this," she said. "You have competition! Don't you want to know about them?"

"Them?" John asked. "There's more than one?"

"Well look at her!" Alex pointed out. "All of the single teachers are after her, and half of the married ones!"

"Mhm," he hummed.

"But you really only have to worry about two," she told him. "Maybe three, but she always seems annoyed with Mr. Clark, so I wouldn't worry about him."

"Is that so, kiddo?"

"Yeah," Alex said. "You remember my history teacher, right? Mr. Sam Wesson?"

Emily was right. Mr. Wesson was extremely good looking. He was very tall, which was kind of weird considering that Ms. Parker wasn't the tallest, but he was very muscular with slightly longer brown hair and to die for blue puppy dog eyes.  
"You have him and Mr. Smith, my PE teacher," she added. "Dean Smith is also extremely fine to look at. He's shorter than you are, but extremely muscular. He's got short dirty blond hair and green eyes. Emily says he's sex on a stick."

"Yeah, okay, I did _not_ need to hear that!" John said.

"That's just payback for your comment earlier," Alex said.

"Okay so there goes any chance I'd have with her. I mean, I've seen Mr. Wesson. There's no way she'd pass that up. Or the other guy, from what you say. What reason would she have to pick me?"

"Because you're awesome," Alex said. "And you're really good looking too. You don't give yourself enough credit."

And he didn't. John was the tall, dark and handsome type. He had extremely dark, warm brown eyes that always made Alex feel safe, protected and cared for. He had short dark brown hair and was also tall, about 6'2" which made him taller than Dean but shorter than Sam. He had a smooth, clean face. He was very good looking.

"Didn't you say she was young?" Blake asked.

"Yeah, she's twenty-one," Alex said. "Why?"

"Aren't I a little old for her then?"

"You're only twenty-eight," she said.

"Twenty-nine," he corrected.

"What? I missed your birthday?" she exclaimed.

"Hey, don't worry about it," he said. "I just went out and had a couple drinks with Longer. Nothing big."

"I still would have gotten you something," Alex said.

"I don't need anything," he said.

Alex stuck her tongue out at him and looked back out the window. "But eight years isn't _that_ bad. Who cares about age?"

"_She_ might," he said.

"Yeah, but if it does Mr. Wesson and Mr. Smith don't have a chance with her either. Wesson's twenty-eight and Smith's thirty-two, but she doesn't seem like to type to be bothered by a large age difference."

"Okay, so there's the age doesn't matter, but that doesn't mean I really have a chance."

"Of course you have a chance!" Alex insisted. "Why wouldn't you?"

"I don't know," he said. "You tell me. What are the guys like?"

"Well, Mr. Smith's kind of a player, he's funny and cool, but he's best friends with Mr. Wesson, so he has to be a good person. Plus, Ms. Parker thinks of him as a friend so he has to be nice! Mr. Wesson's more mellow. He'd be the kind of guy to sit at home and read with. He's really nice and smart."

Alex saw that John was about to say something negative about himself so she jumped in again. "But you're extremely sweet and funny. You're protective and it makes people feel safe with you. Plus, she was totally checking you out too."

"Wait what?" he asked excitedly and shocked. His brown eyes looked to her, pleading her to tell him. "She was?"

"Yeah," Alex answered. "I even asked her about it. She was extremely embarrassed and she denied it, but she stuttered so much that it was obvious that she was."

"Really?" he asked.

"Oh yeah," Alex said. "See, you have a shot with her! Don't sell yourself short."

"Okay, okay, I get it. Be confident," he laughed.

"Yes, stupid. Be confident!"

"What? I'm stupid? How am I supposed to be confident if you keep putting me down!" He joked. "Hey, no hitting!"


	2. Cousin Sid

So whenever I start another part for this story, I make a new word document for it so that the originals are up in the thousands in page numbers, but what I really hate about doing it the way I do is that whenever I start a new one, I always try and open the last one I had and I'm like, "Wait, I'm in the wrong place!" and then I have to close and open the other and I do this for like the first five chapters.  
Not that any of that is important to any of you, but I figured I'd rant because I don't really have anything better to say up here today.  
Anyway! How you guys like the chapter even though it's a little short. I just didn't really feel this episode. Hope you like and please review!

Thanks go out to the following for thier reivews on the previous chapter:

**_StillDoll13 _**\- Jashton, yes! I know I ship them hard...Can I ship them that hard if I'm the one that created them? And you'll just have to see how they all eventually interact with one another. ;) In the other world they seemed to get along fine, but who knows. That was another world, after all. Mwahahah  
**_NYCelt _**\- I know. I love their relationship. I didn't plan on using him this often when I first created him, but I love where's it's gone.  
**_Kat03 _**\- I'm so glad you liked it! Hope you like the chapter!  
**_TMNTluckygirl _**\- Thanks, English sister! And I love Jaston too. They're great!  
**_TMG14899 _**\- Ooooh, yeah, you are so going to have to wait and see how everything plays out. Some you may like, some you might not...But I'm not telling!  
**_erica. phoenix16 _**\- Thanks! Hope you like the chapter!  
**_Katie _**\- I'm so glad you like it. I really didn't want one of those stories wher they automatically have an attraction to the love interest. I wanted their relationship to grow and develope.  
OH MY GOD YES! Yes, it is a Supernatural reference and so far you have been the only one to indicate that they have figured that out. THANK YOU SO MUCH. I just started the series a cuople months ago and I'm just about to start season 7 (so no spoilers!), but I just love the guys so much that I figured I could adopt them into this somehow. I hope you like it. And I'm doing a side story for John and Ash (That's Parker's first name; Ashton) so if you're interested, at some point there will be a story where they are very reoccuring characters. Right now I only have about a page of it written, this story is my main focus right now so it won't be for a while, but if you're interested, let me know. And your review totally made my night. Thank you so much!

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Chapter 2  
"Cousin Sid"

With the help of Casey and John, all four teenage human boys were placed on cots upstairs. The human boys were all still unconscious and would most likely be for quite some time. It had take Alex a couple days to wake back up when they reversed the effect on her and she had only been hit with the ray for a couple weeks. The boys? They had been under it for more than a year! It would take longer than a couple days for them to wake up.

But they would wake up. Mortu assured her of that. And she would get her family and friend back!

They had lucked out when the Utrom got there. That was for sure. But Alex couldn't have been happier. She had her Terrapin family, as well as her human family. They were all back and in one piece, for the most part. They were injured, but they were all still alive. That was so much more than Alex could have ever asked for.

When Leo told her about their plan, Alex honestly thought she wasn't going to make it through the mission. She didn't care what happened to her, which was reckless and stupid of her, but it was how she felt. As long as everybody else, the people she cared about, were okay and safe, she was fine with it.

But now she actually had a chance to live with everybody. Things could go back to normal, or as normal as they got with Alex and her friends. She as a freaking teenage ninja girl, after all. How normal could her life be?

After getting the boys upstairs, John helped Alex down the stairs to the living room. She sat down in one of the dining room chairs that had been moved in.

John kissed her on the top of the head and said, "I've got to head out. I've not work in the morning, but call me tomorrow and tell me how everyone is."

"I will," she said. "Promise. I'll keep you updated."

"Okay," he kissed her head one more times. "Get some rest, Firecracker."

"Goodnight!" she told him.

"Bye guys!" John said to the group. "Heal up!"

There were various echoes of goodbye as Detective Blake left.

"All right," April said. "Who's hungry?"

Everybody declared that they were except for Leo. Alex glanced over at the leader. He was standing over by the window. He was looking into the night, almost searching, but Alex had no idea what he would be searching for. Everybody was there.

"Leo?" April asked.

When he didn't answer her, Master Splinter thought it his place to ask. "Leonardo?"

"I'm fine," he answered a moment later.

Hearing the tone of his voice, Alex felt he was far from fine.

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Casey and April had just helped Raph and Mikey up the stairs with Don trailing right behind them. Master Splinter was sitting at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for April or Casey to come back down to assist him up. Alex was still downstairs, having moved to the couch. Leo was still standing beside the window, not having participated in dinner or dinnertime conversation.

Something wasn't right. Alex knew it. Leo wasn't acting like himself and it was worrying her. He wasn't eating. He wasn't talking. He wasn't even looking at any of them. All he was doing was staring out the window. She knew something was wrong and she had to help him. He had given her back so much. She had to at least try.

Alex got up from her spot on the couch and moved behind Leo. "Leo?" Alex asked. He didn't turn to look at her whatsoever. She narrowed her eyes in confusion. "Hey," she said. She took his head in one of her hands and directed him to look at her. "Look at me, Leo." His face may have been facing her, but his eyes were still looking out the window. "Talk to me, Leo."

Leo gently placed his hand on the hand she had on his cheek. She smiled gently, feeling as if he was finally going to look at her and tell her what was bothering him. But a moment after she thought that, he removed her hand from his face and turned his body away from her, looking out the window once more. She sighed, letting her hand drop back to her side. She was going to have to think of another way to get Leo to open up.

If Alex hadn't been so determined to get her brothers back at any cost, she most likely would have been in the same boat that Leo was in. All of them had almost died, willingly, to defeat the Shredder. If accepting the fact that you were going to die in an explosion wasn't mentally traumatizing even for someone to be bothered then perhaps believing that everybody you cared about was going to die in the same horrific way was.

Everybody else seemed to have accepted that they had almost died, for a good cause, and were just happy to be alive and with one another. Leo? Leonardo didn't seem to be able to come to the same terms as his brothers.

"Do you remember when we came here right after the Shredder blew up April's shop?" Alex asked.

His reply was a simple nod of the head.

"Do you remember what we talked about that night?" All she received was a shrug. "The _shell_ you don't! You remember that night as well as I do. It was the night we talked about my brothers and how I couldn't trade place with them. That you wouldn't let me. You remember that?"

"Yeah," he finally said.

"You said that we'd make everything right and you were absolutely right," she said. "You said that because I was family that my business was your business too. Well, Leo, you're my _best friend_. And you're my _family_. That means you come to me with anything. You said it yourself on my birthday; you know you can talk to me about anything, right? No matter what it is, I'm here."

"I'm fine," he insisted. "Nothing you need to worry about."

"You said the same thing the night you came to my room after helping Angel get her brother back," Alex said. "And as I recall, you really needed someone to talk to that night. And when you left, you were in a much better state of mind. So, Leo," she moved his head to look at her again, "_talk_ to me."

He glared down at her and pushed her aside. She bumped into the wall, hitting the bruise and stab wound she had on her back. She ignored the pain as best she could and watched Leo go upstairs, right past Master Splinter who had been listening to everything they had said. Alex sighed and dejectedly sat down on the couch.

"Give him time, Alexandra," Splinter said from his seat on the stairs. "It only just happened. He needs time to come to terms with what happened."

"I know," Alex said. "But I have a bad feeling about this, Master Splinter."

"As do I, dear," he said. "As do I."

* * *

_Don't I look pretty_, Alex though sarcastically as she looked at her reflection in the full length mirror in the bathroom. She had just taken a shower with a great deal of care and effort to make sure she didn't injure herself further. She had to admit that as she looked at her bare skin that she looked like she went through hell and back.

Alex's red hair was pulled back, showing the large black and blue bruise on the right side of her face we well as the bruise around her neck from where the Shredder had nearly strangled her and right under her chin where Kurai had kicked her. The rest of her wasn't much better. She had several bruises the size of Kurai's foot all over her body. There was one on her right shoulder, on her collar bone, in the center of her chest. She also had two other footprints from when they had been attacked in the tunnel; one on the back and one on stomach. The worst was the stab wounds to her stomach. There were too gashes on her stomach from the Shredder's claws. She was lucky they didn't go all the way through her. If they had, it would have severed her spin. She had gotten extremely lucky.

"April?" Alex called from the bathroom. "Where did you put the new wrappings we bought?"

She didn't get a reply. Alex opened the door and stuck her head out. She found nobody in the living room. "April?" Alex called out again. A second later the door opened and April and Casey walked in from outside. "April?

"Yeah Alex?" April asked, walking over to the bathroom door.

Alex looked at her for a moment. "Did I miss something?"

April rolled her eyes and huffed. She crossed her arms and leaned most of her weight to one foot. "You have no idea," she admitted. "I'll tell you later."

"Can you tell me and help me wrap my wounds?" she asked. "I can do it on my own if you're busy, but it's kind of hard to not reopen the wound though."

"No problem," she said, her gaze softening.

* * *

By the time Alex was done downstairs with April, the rest of the guys were already asleep upstairs. She quietly made her way around the room, checking to make sure that everybody was comfortable and safe, sleeping soundly.

It was hard to see everybody in rough conditions. The triplets and Fred were still unconscious. Master Splinter was a walking torched bag of hair. Mikey had broken legs. Don broke an arm. Raph could barely move and Leo, well, Alex thought a lot of Leo's wounds weren't the visible kind.

Alex stopped when she got to Leo and glanced down at him. She didn't move to pull the blanket up to cover him more or to tenderly touch the side of his face because she knew he was a lot like her. He would wake up and attack.

She opted to knee down beside his bed for a moment though. She looked at his sleeping face and found that he didn't look like he normally did when he slept. Normally he looked peaceful. Ad she looked at his green features, all Alex could think about was how much in pain and angry he looked. He looked exactly the same when he was awake.

Alex knew that pain all too well. It wasn't enough that life was sometimes a nightmare for them. It had to follow them into their sleep as well, haunting them. Hunting them down until they were so tired that they couldn't properly function.

It was no way to live and Alex knew that Leo wouldn't be able to go on very long like this. He was so angry. It reminded her of Raph in a lot of ways, but it was different too. Raph got angry a lot, but there was something about the air around Leo felt so tense and hostile. She didn't like it. It honestly scared her.

She had to help Leo. He had helped her through so much; him and him brothers were part of the reason she began training again after her parents died, he helped her deal with the fact that her brothers were working for the Shredder and helped to get them back.

_Oh, Leo_. Alex sighed. _Tell me what's wrong_. _I can't help you if you don't let me._

She realized that was what she was scared of. She was afraid Leo wouldn't let anybody in to help him deal with whatever it was that was brothering him. And if he didn't he would be lost to them.

Alex didn't know what she would do if she didn't have Leo. And she made a vow to herself, in that moment, that she wouldn't let that happen. She couldn't let Leo get lost because if Leo was lost, so was everybody else.


	3. The People's Choice

Here we are! I'm always impatient when it comes to posting these on a schedule. I mean, I jus couldn't wait to post it until SUNDAY! UH! So I caved and here it is! Hope you guys like it!

Thanks go out to the following for reviewing the previous chapter:  
_**TMNTluckygirl **_\- Awwww, I know. I always want to give him a hug when he's like this.  
**_dream lighting _**\- I think you'll like the answer to when the boys wake up. ;) But you'll have to see about if Leo opens up to Alex or not. And yes, 2007 movie WILL be a part of this Alex's series. I don't know about the 2014 one yet. If I DID do it, it would have to be a whole separate Alex story, from scractch. (If you can't tell, I always have Alex in the TMNT things I write though you most likely don't know about all the other things I have in the works with TMNT/ALex in other universes, like 2012 and whatnot.)  
**_NYCelt _**\- You always think my chapters are amazing. Are there any you DON"T like. Not that I'm complaining, I aim to please!  
**_StillDoll13 _**\- I could NOT have put that any better myself. You are so spot on with that description that it's kind of scary, but it just proves how good of a writer and interpretter you are. And yes, it is very EVANESCENT, isn't it. AHAHAH ;)  
**_Kat093 _**\- I guess we'll just have to see about that, won't we? It's never that easy though, is it? Not with them, at least.  
**_erica. phoenix16 _**\- You are very welcome!

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Chapter 3  
"The People's Choice"

It had been almost six weeks since they had arrived at the farm house. Six long, fairly care free weeks. Alex had gone back into the city at the end of June to turn in the homework John had brought to her and taken her finals and regents tests, having done fairly well. She had plenty of time to study and do work at the farm house, seeing as she couldn't do any training. She couldn't go for runs. The only thing she could do when the guys started to get on her nerves was do her homework or study.

It paid off in the end.

Her friends had freaked out when she showed up at the test. They all acted as if she had died and come back to life – which had almost happened. But she told them everything was find and that she was with April, Casey, the guys, HER BROTHERS and FRED, which they all took as a great shock. She just left out the fact that they had been in comas for the past month.

Ms. Parker was also extremely shocked when Alex walked in. The moment she noticed the young redhead, she let out a deep sigh and went over to talk to the girl. She had asked her if she was all right, fearing that she was extremely sick. She informed her teacher that she had just been in an accident and was advised by doctors to rest for almost two months, but had allowed her to go in for tests.

"That's such a relief," Parker has said. "You had me extremely worried, Alex!.I was tempted to track down Detective Blake and demand that he tell me if you were all right. However, _I'm_ not the detective so I had no idea of how to get into contact with him."

Alex, smirking the whole time, took out a sheet of paper from her notebook, scribbled something on it before handing it to the woman. "Here," she said. "Just in case you want to get in contact with him."

"Oh," Parker said, a deep red blush forming on her cheeks. "Uh, thank you? I'm not sure what I would use it for now that I know you're all right, though."

"Just keep it in case you have an emergency. John would be more than happy to help," Alex said. "Or you could just call him sometime; see if he'd like to get a drink or dinner. I'm sure he'd just be excited to hear from you."

"If I didn't know any better, Alex, I would think you're trying to set me up with the Detective,"

"Hm, that's an interesting thought," Alex chuckled, playing dumb. "Now that you brought it up, you two would look adorable together!"

"_Alex_," Parker said, trying to scold the girl. She had failed miserably though. She was blushing and smirking too much to be serious.

"Just a thought!"

After that final test, Alex had returned to the farmhouse with John (keeping it a secret that she had given Ms. Parker his number the whole way) to meet up with her boys. John, once again, had to return back to the city due to work, but she enjoyed the time she got to spend with him in the car, most of the time bickering about each other's task in music.

But overall, things were really starting to look up. Everybody's injuries were healing very nicely, if not already healed. All of Alex's bruises were gone. Her stab wound was almost completely gone as well. All that remained was the two large unattractive light and rather sensitive scars. Being in such a state allowed her to pick up training and doing more physical activities too, which was nice since it was now summer vacation

Which was why she was now resting on the front porch. She had just finished washing the van and was trying to dry herself off in the warm sun. Her black bikini was a great contrast to her pale skin. Her green eyes watched as the turtles packed their bags on the front lawn for their overnight camping trip. It was humors to see just how much food Mikey tried to pack away in his bag. And once his bag was full, see how much he could fit into the other's bags without getting caught.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" Raph asked the girl.

"Yeah, I'm sure," she answered with a chuckle. "Someone has to hold the fort down and make sure Casey and April behave themselves!"

"Alex!" April gasped from the swing on the porch. Casey was sitting next to her, rubbing he back of his neck in embarrassment from the comment.

"What?" she joked.

"Don't you like camping?" Mikey asked.

"Looking at the stars out in the open? Yes," Alex said. "Sleeping on the cold, hard ground in the open air? No."

"What, afraid some bugs will come and crawl in your mouth and nose?" Raph teased.

"Ew," April groaned, thinking about that imagery.

"Says the turtles scared of cockroaches," Alex retorted.

"Hey, I'm not scared of anything!" he protested.

"Sure, Raphie," she laughed. "Deny it all you like. We all know it's true!"

"Why you little…"

"Are you sure you don't want to come?" Don asked, trying to steer the topic in another direction to prevent a Raph Attack. "It'll be weird not having you with us."

"I'm fine," Alex said. She stepped off the porch and handed Don his sleeping bag. "You guys deserve some quality guy time. Plus, aren't you guys tired of me by now?"

"Never!" Mikey yelled. He picked her up from behind and tossed her over his shoulder. She spun her around, making her laugh and rather dizzy. Everyone else seemed to think it was funny too.

"Put me down, Mikey!"

"What are the magic words?"

"Please put me down?"

"What? No! Michelangelo is the awesomest, handsomest, spectacular Battle Nexus Champion there ever was!"

"No!" Alex said. "I am so not saying that."

"Say it or you go camping!"

"I don't think so!" Alex pinched a nerve in his harm, making it go limp. He dropped Alex, who rolled up to her feet. She dusted herself off and walked as if nothing had happened back to the porch. "You guys have a fun guy's night."

"All right then!" Don said. "If we're all set, we should be heading out. We want to get camp set up before it gets dark."

"Bye guys," Alex told them. "Stay safe." Before Leo made it passed her though, she gently grabbed his arm and took him to the side of the porch for a little privacy.

Leo had been an enigma their entire stay at the farmhouse. For the most part, he remained secluded, staring out windows. When he had to be around everybody else, he barely talked. Even when asked a direct question his answer normally was a shrug, a nod or a single word reply. It was driving everybody, specifically Alex, to the brink of snapping at the leader.

Alex had repeatedly tried to get Leo to talk about what was going on. After a while she stopped trying. Instead she tried to just talk to him; tried to get him back into a little bit more of a state of normalcy. All of her effort was wasted however. Leo just wouldn't open up to anybody. It was almost like he didn't want to be around them at all.

This Leo scared her.

"What?" he asked.

"Try and relax with your brothers, Leo," Alex told him, her hand resting gently on his upper arm. "You're on vacation."

Leo shook his head with narrowed eyes. The leader turned to leave, but Alex reached out and grabbed his hand, squeezing it reassuringly like she had done so many times before. She pulled him back just enough where he as now facing her, but when he looked at her, all she could see were hollow eyes.

"Leo," she started to say.

Words seemed to fail her though. Talking to Leo wasn't like it used to be. This was forced, pleading. Leo used to be so easy to talk to. He was fun and funny and playful for the most part. Now? He barely looked at her. It made her wonder if she had done something wrong to anger him. But what could she have done to get him so angry at everybody?

Finally Alex settled on, "You have to spend as much time with them as you can, Leo. You don't know how precious that time is until they're gone." That seemed to get him. "Trust me. I _know_." He relaxed just slightly, but before Alex could really comprehend what happened, he put up his wall again. "Try and have fun with them, for me. _Please_?"

Leo looked around the corner where his brothers were goofing around. Alex expected him to pull away from her again, but he surprised her when he didn't. He nodded his head slightly, almost to the point where Alex couldn't tell. She knew she hadn't imagined it when he gave her hand the slightest of squeezed before releasing her hand.

Alex leaned against the side of the house and watched them go. Three of the brothers were goofing around and talking as the walked away. The last was trailing behind, studying the environment with a glare.

A sigh escaped her lips. _Where have you gone, Leo?_ she asked herself. She shook her head and headed into the house. _Wherever you've gone, Leo, come back soon. We miss you._

xXx

It had been a long time since Alex had really gotten to sit down and read a book. She absolutely loved to read. It relaxed her physically, excited her mentally and didn't involve too much effort. It was exactly the kind of thing she needed that night. She was laying in her bed with her back up against the headboard, book in hand.

Master Splinter was sitting in the middle of the room on the furry brown rug meditating. Alex made sure to turn the pages of the book softly to not disturb the Master in his peaceful state. She knew she found it annoying when there was a lot going on around her when she meditated, even though she could ignore it.

_"It turned out a good thing that night that they had brought little Bilbo with them, after all. For, somehow, he could not go to sleep for a long while; and when he did sleep, he had very nasty dreams. He dreamed that a crack in the wall at the wider, and he was very afraid but could not call out or do anything but lie and look. Then he dreamed that the floor of the cave was giving way, and he was slipping – beginning to fall down, down, goodness knows where to."_ Alex heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She glanced over her book to find Casey looking over the railing, debating whether or not to actually enter or not. She raised an eyebrow at that. Why was he so nervous? She shrugged it off and looked back down to her book.

_"At that he woke up with a horrible start, and found that…"_

Casey cleared his throat and stood at the top of the stairs, waiting to be told to enter. Alex looked up from her book, curious as ever. Casey was really acting weird. Or weirder than normal.

"Come in," Master Splinter told him.

"Yo, Master Splinter," Casey started to say, "you're like, wise and all that kind of stuff. I need some advice. What do you do if you got feelings for somebody and you just want to tell them something really important, but you don't know how to do it?"

"I am not an expert in such matters, but I am sure you should simply be yourself and trust your instincts," Master Splinter said.

"Uh, Master Splinter, it's me we're talking about here," Casey said.

_He has a point_, Alex thought.

"Hm, yes, I see," Splinter said. "Then perhaps a large breakfast served in bed with flowers. I think flowers. Yes, many flowers."

"Great! Thanks, Master Splinter," Casey told him.

He left, leaving Alex smirking at what just happened. _Did Casey just ask Master Splinter for romantic advice? _She couldn't believe it. She shrugged thinking: _Well, it was good advice,_ before looking back down at the book.  
_"At that he woke up with a horrible start, and found that…"_

"Many, many flowers," Alex heard Master Splinter mutter to himself as he continued meditating.

Alex had to put her hand over her mouth to prevent herself from laughing.

xXx

The next morning Alex got up early, before Master Splinter was up and went out into the woods to get some wild flowers. Once she ground some pretty yellow ones, she picked them and went back to the house. She put them in water and then went upstairs. She found Master Splinter still asleep and put the flowers on the bedside table.

Alex smiled and desperately hoped he would like them. Master Splinter was always there to help her and everybody else and she wanted to do something, despite how small, to try and show him that they, or Alex, appreciated everything he did. He was like a father to her too. He didn't have to be, he already had four children of his own to look after, but he trusted and cared for her as if she were one of his own.

Once she placed them there, Alex went back to her bed and resumed where she had left off in her book the night before.

_"That night he was very miserable and hardly slept. Next day the dwarves all went wandering off in various directions; some were exercising the ponies down below, some were roving about the mountain-side. All day Bilbo sat gloomily in the grassy bay gazing at the…"_

"_Uh_."

Alex stopped mid-sentence because she thought she heard something. She looked over the top of her book once more and glanced around the room, but she didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Her brothers and Fred were still unmoving on their beds; Master Splinter was still in a restful slumber. She knew that Casey and April were both still asleep, she had checked on them not too long after entering the house after getting the flowers. She eventually just shrugged and took up reading once more.

"_All day Bilbo sat gloomily in the grassy bay gazing at the…"_

"_Uh._"

Alex quickly sat up, tossing the book to her side. She definitely heard it that time. She got off the bed and checked Master Splinter first. He was still asleep. Next was Nathan and Zack. Both were still silent and as still as could be. Marcus was at the far end of the room and hadn't moved whatsoever. Finally, Alex got to Fred and looked at him carefully. He didn't look like he had moved either.

Alex growled frustrated. She had no idea where the noise was coming from. If it wasn't coming from the room, where was it coming from? _Unless_…Alex's eyes widened when that though crossed her mind. _Unless Casey did get up and make April breakfast and things went a little too well._ She shivered. _Oh, that is just so disturbing to think about!_

"_Uh_."

Alex jumped when the body next to her groaned. Her first thought was: Oh_, thank God it's not Casey and April!_ She then moved a little closer to Fred and sat down on the side of his bed. "Fred?" Alex asked.

His closed eyes went from relaxed to clamped before going back to soft. His lips were parted ever so slightly in order to get the noise out of his mouth.

"Fred?" she asked again, running her hand over his forehead and cheek to make sure that something wasn't wrong like a fever. "Can you hear me?"

"_Uh_."

She took that as a yes. "Can you do that again for me?" He groaned. He was doing it on command, which meant he was aware of his surroundings for the most part. "Are you in pain?" No noise. "Are you in pain?" Nothing. She decided to see if she could get him to do anything else.

"Can you open your eyes?" she asked.

Fred's eyes slowly opened and stared aimlessly around the room, trying to focus. After several minutes his eyes finally landed on Alex sitting beside him. His eyes connect with Alex's who was beaming down at the boy that had once been her best friend. She laughed with joy. He was awake! One of them was awake!

"Hey," she greeted. "Long time no see, Freddy."

"Lex?" he managed to get out.

"Do you want some water?"

He managed to move his head ever so slightly, which if Alex didn't know how hard it was for him to move it or if he had just done it without a question, she wouldn't have been able to tell it was a yes. But she did. She quickly got up, ran downstairs and got a glass of water. She brought it back up to him and gently set him up. She put the glass to his lips and he drank if very carefully.

"Better?" she asked.

He nodded his head with much more ease this time. "Thanks," he got out.

"How do you feel?" she asked.

"Could be better," he told her.

"I'll take it though," Alex said, putting her hand on his arm. "It's so good to have you back, Fred. We've all been worried sick about you guys."

Fred glanced around the room, taking note of Alex's brothers and the large sleeping rat. "Where are we?"

"At a friend's country house," she informed him. "We came out here after our final showdown with Shredder to heal up."

"When?" he asked.

"We've been here about six weeks," she told him.

"Six weeks?" he repeated.

"Yeah," Alex said. She smiled, making sure he knew that there was nothing to worry about. "It took longer for you guys to wake up because of how long you were under the effects of the Utrom rays."

He looked worried. "The Shredder?"

Alex smiled widely. "Gone," she told him. "He's being imprisoned on an asteroid. He's not coming back. You guys are free."

"We are?" he asked.

"Yes," she said. "I told the guys I'd get you guys back."

"Alex, I'm so sorry," he said. "I never meant to hurt you. That was never my intent. I just wanted to be able to do things you could relate to. I didn't know that Shredder was who he was."

"Hey, hey, hey," she hushed. "It's okay, Fred. I know. I talked to your mom a while back. I've already gotten the whole story."

"But I hurt you," he said. "I hurt your friends."

"We're all okay," she said. _For the most part_. "There's nothing to worry about. Now that you're awake, you can go home soon. You can see your mom again."

"I'm sorry." Tears were streaming down his cheeks. Alex had never seen Fred cry before. Not even when he broke his leg in three places when they were in fifth grade. "I'm so sorry."

"Come here," she said. She pulled him into her arms and held him tightly, trying to make him feel better. "It's going to be all right. I promise."

She just hoped that would be true all around.


	4. Family Business

I know the last couple of chapters were short, but hey, they're chapters! And the next one will most likely be longer. This chapter's mainly Alex and her brothers. Hope you guys like, please review!  
Also, for all of the American (or even if you're not) football fans HAPPY SUPERBOWL! I don't want either team to win, I don't like either, but whatever, my team sucks (but they're my team so GO BILLS!). But may your evenings be filled with pizza, wins and funny commercials.

_**NYCelt**_\- Aw, thank you! Yes! I've been reading The Hobbit, so I figured I'd put it in, that and it was the closest book to me at the time. ;) And I guess you'll just have to wait and see about the love trouble. _**  
Stilldoll13 - **_Yes, Leo does still love them. There are a couple moments when he's more like his old self, like when he interacts with Mikey after the rematch at the Battle Nexus. But I totally get what you're saying.  
_**Kat093**_-I'm so glad you liked it!  
_**dream lighting**_\- One of your questions shall be answered! And I can't wait for the 2007 movie. I have so many plans for it!  
_**Erica. phoenix16**_ \- You are very welcome.  
_**TMG4899**_ \- I'm glad you liked it.

* * *

Chapter 4  
"Family Business"

Alex's vacation in the country didn't last much longer after Fred, and her brothers the day following, woke up. The comatose boys quickly regained their health and their strength. Not too long after waking up, they were up and about, training with the rest of the group, getting to know each other.

The brothers were much more open to getting to know the guys than Alex originally thought they would be. Perhaps it was because of how much Alex trusted them, and how much they realized they helped her through the toughest situations, partially caused by their disappearance, as well as coming to let go of their parents' death.

Fred was another story all together. It wasn't that he was really rude to the guys, it was more like he was just a little bit hesitant to get to know them. He had a hard time accepting the fact that when Alex had been hanging out with them, when they were still in school together, that she was going out to hang with teenage mutant ninja turtles.

She had told her friends that they most likely wouldn't understand her new friends.

It was kind of annoying how much he went out of his way to avoid having to interact with them though. It kind of made her angry and disappointed in him. Even John hadn't been that bad and Alex had seriously blown up on him when he accused them of cause all of Alex's injuries from everything they've been though.

Alex was just trying to calm down though. She had to think of how Fred felt too. He wasn't home. He had been through so much. He had been forced to fight against his best friend, hurting her on many occasions. Now he was hanging with the people had had been forced to fight against? It was a lot to take in.

So when it came time for Alex to leave with her brothers, Fred by ride of Detective John Blake, Alex was rather relieved that she wouldn't have to deal with all of the awkward silences when Fred and everybody had to interact.

Alex left early from their vacation in order to help get the guys back up and integrated into society. Her brothers wanted to reopen their family's dojo, though in a new building seeing as the old one had too many bad memories. Alex didn't blame them for that. So she went along to help her brothers, as well as to support them with the whole death-in-absentia business they had to get taken care of.

Thank heavens John was helping them come up with an excuse. Though now that Oroku Saki was ousted as being a bad guy it wouldn't have been so difficult for anybody to believe that they had been kidnapped by him. They just went with the safer route and came up with another kidnapping story.

John also got along very well with her brothers. When they found out John had been looking out for Alex while they were "gone" they would not stop thanking him, even went as far as to invite him over for dinner once they got a place to live (this took them only several days to find, including a new place for a dojo, which seemed very unrealistic to them with the way the NYC real estate market was).

While she was busy helping her brother set up their business, Alex also ran the shop while April was gone. She figured that since she was already there she may as well earn them some money. They had already been off so much since they were up in the Hampton. April's only employee was Alex so they could use the money.

Alex also stayed in touch with everything that was going on with everybody when she left as well, making sure to call almost every night, which was kind of annoying to April since she was using up most of her minutes. But it eased Alex a little bit to know what was going on. After everything they had gone through, it was the lease April could do to ease her niece's nerves.

Plus, Alex was still extremely worried about Leo. It didn't help when one of the topics that was brought up with April was about Leo.

"_You should have heard what Leo told me, Alex_," April said. "_I feel so bad for him_."

"What'd he say?" Alex asked. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"_Relax, Alex_," she said. "_And doesn't something always happen? They took care of it. Nothing to worry about. What I'm talking about is that_ _I asked Leo if anything was wrong and he finally said what it was_."

Alex interrupted her before she could tell her what he really said. "He told you?" she asked. "Why wouldn't he tell me? We tell each other everything."

"_Alex, he feels responsible for the fact you guys almost blew yourselves up,_" she said. "_He believes that he wasn't a good enough leader, that he failed all of you_."

"What?" Alex asked in disbelief. "No, but that's not right. Nothing we could have done would have changed what happened. It wasn't his fault that was our only option. We all knew the risks. We all agreed that was what had to be done."

"_But_ _put yourself in his position_," April said. "_I don't blame him for thinking that way. I would if I were him. How would you feel if you sent your brothers to their deaths?_"

Alex sighed. She hadn't sent her brothers to their deaths, but they had given up their freedom in order for her to keep her's. If Leo felt a fraction of how bad Alex had felt, he had to be completely shattered and in so much pain. It explained his resent change in character. She understood it all now. She didn't necessarily agree or approved of this thinking, but she understood. Maybe it would allow her to better figure out a way to help him see that it wasn't really his fault.

"_He_ _seemed particularly upset that you would have died too_," April pointed out. "_I mean, killing his family was tormenting enough, but someone that wasn't blood? Someone that may or may not have had to be there at all?_"

"My God," Alex sighed.

"Hey, Alex!" Marcus called from the back closet of the new dojo. "Can you come give us a hand with this?"

"Be right there!" Alex called back, placing her hand over the receiver to prevent the volume of her voice from defining April. She then put the phone back to her ear and said, "I've got to go, but thanks for telling me this, April. I really appreciate it."

"_Don't mention it_," April said. "_Really, don't tell Leo I told you. I just figured you of all people would be able to help him feel better._"

"Right," she said. "I'll see you when you guys get back next week."

"Are you talking to April?" Zack asked.

"Yes," Alex answered.

"Tell her we all say hello," Nathan said.

"The guys say hello," Alex told her.

April laughed. "_Tell_ _them hi and that I love them. Now goodbye, Alex. I love you_."

"Love you too," Alex replied. Alex hung up the phone and slipped it into her pocket as she went to help her brothers carry out a large training dummy. "April sends her love," she told them.

"How is everybody?" Nathan asked.

"Fine," Alex said. "Everything's normal. Or as normal as it gets with us."

"We've definitely got interesting lives," Marcus said.

"Yup," Zack said. "What were the chances all of this stuff happened to just us?"

"Don't say things like that!" Alex scolded. "It's a jinx."

"But things are settling down now," Nathan said. "Things can't get more hectic than what's already happened."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Alex said. "I mean, my best friends are teenage mutant ninja turtles. I'm basically a vigilante. And we're opening up a martial arts dojo at the ages of sixteen and nineteen."

"Well, I hope it stays relatively normal," Nathan said. "Once we get enough money with this business, I want to go to college."

"And I want to go to California," Zack said.

"Why?" Alex asked the youngest triplet.

"I don't know," he answered. "California's happening!"

"You are so weird," Alex muttered, shaking her head.

"Not as weird as you," Zack retorted.

"How am I weird?" Alex asked.

"Uh, I don't know," Nathan started sarcastically, "you're a teenage ninja that hangs out with mutant turtles more than you do humans."

Alex just shrugged. It was true. She did hang out with the guys more than she did humans. "Okay, maybe you have a point."

"Maybe?" Marcus joked. "Little Sis, you're the weirdest O'Neil there is!"

Alex just stuck her tongue out at her oldest brother.

"Oh, that's mature," Nathan said.

"Fine, you want mature?" Alex asked. "Let's talk business."

"Business?" Zack asked. "What kind of business?"

"_Our_ business," Alex clarified. "Obviously we're going to be teaching martial arts, but I think we should have other classes for different things too."

"That's a good idea," Marcus said.

"Like what?" Zack asked.

"I don't know," Alex thought. "Maybe a yoga class to appeal to a larger clientele?"

"Or kickboxing," Marcus added.

"Yeah," Alex said.

"That's a really good idea," Nathan said. "A smart business plan."

"Thank you," Alex said.

"Hey," Zack said, "can we get pizza for dinner?"

* * *

Also, there is now a twitter page to let you know when I update if you're into that thing. It's RJNorth_Fanfics.


	5. I, Monster

I was home sick today so I had some time to finish this. I know it's been a while, and this chapter isn't exactly the best, but it's a chapter! Hope you guys like it.

Thanks go out to the following for their reviews:  
_**StillDoll13:**_ I really want to try cardio kickboxing now. I looked it up and I agree, it looks painfully fun. But I also want to start doing yogo...no time for anything!  
_**NYCelt**_: I know, poor Leo. I hate how much he's hurt in this part of the series.  
_**dream lighting:**_ She knew it was coming because Fred woke up. This gives a little more incite on what happened when Alex left, but she doesn't go back. But she does spend time with the guys so I think we're all good!  
_**erica. phoenix16:**_You are very welcome.

* * *

Chapter 5

"I, Monster"

The Turtles, Master Splinter, Casey and April all returned a week after Alex found out from April what was bothering Leo. It was another week after their return that Alex finally got to finally hang out with the turtles. Starting up the business was hard work and it was taking up a lot of Alex's free time, as well as working at The 2nd Time Around _and_ starting her senior year that week. Everything just seemed to fall on the same week.

But that Saturday Marcus and Zack were in charge of the classes and Alex had the night off from the antique store. Raph had gotten in contact with Alex and asked her if she wanted to go out with them for a training/game night, which completely intrigued the girl. She really wanted a night out with her terrapins! Oh, and Casey…

Alex had no idea what they were doing, but it had to be better than sitting in her room doing homework all night. No, the homework can wait until Sunday.

"Hey guys," Alex greeted. "Long time no see!"

"Alex!" Mikey yelled. The orange masked ninja ran over to the girl and hugged her tightly. He lifted her off the ground and swung her in a circle.

"Okay, okay. I missed you too," Alex laughed. "Now put me down, Mikey!"

"Hi, Alex!" Don greeted. He too hugged the red haired girl, but not as enthusiastically as Michelangelo had. "How are you? How's the business?"  
"Everything's going great!" Alex enthused. "We just started doing classes this week and we've gotten a lot of people come in. It's really cool, but so much work."

"Those boys aren't giving you too much trouble, are they?" Raph asked.

"Nah," Alex said. "I can handle them, plus I'm still living at April's so I don't have to be with them all the time."

"How about that Fred guy?" Mikey asked.

"He's good, I guess," Alex said. "When we got back he kind of spent most of his time with his mom. I saw him a couple times at school this week though. We talked a little, had lunch together with some of my other friends. He's just trying to get back into the swing of things, I think."

"And how are you adjusting to all the change?" Don asked.

"I'm fine," Alex answered. "Busy, but it's fun. I miss my Terrapin Time though. Speaking of which, what are we doing here?"

"Is it perfect of what?" Casey asked.

"I reiterate," Alex said. "What are we doing here?"

"Used to take the train out here after school to rain some uh, you know, to get away from it all," Casey said.

"Bull s-" Alex started to say, but was cut off.

"I didn't know there were any places like this left in the boroughs. Room to move, shadows everywhere to hide in," Don said.

"It's like a ninja playground!" Mikey exclaimed.

"What do you think, Leo?" Casey asked.

Leo was standing ahead of the group, back turned to them with his shoulders tense, arms crossed. "We're losing daylight. Let's get training."

Alex's smile fell. Her eyes softened as she stared at the knot in the back of Leo's mask. _Oh Leo_, she sighed. She had talked to April more about what Leo had told her and found out that their conversation had been interrupted. He hadn't said enough to get the burden off his shoulders and Alex knew it. _You have to talk to someone, Leo. You can't stay like this forever._

"Yes, Sir! Mr. Sunshine, Sir!" Raph replied sarcastically.

The fence around the facility was easily jumped by most (Casey) and the group made their way farther into the old abandoned factory district. Alex was getting weird feelings from the place. She kept looking around her, feeling her gut drop at the oddest of places. She couldn't see anything wrong with the place though. Unless there were evil mole creatures digging under their feet (though she wouldn't shove that thought away with their luck) she was just jumpy about the creep factor the place had.

"All right, we ready to play?" Mikey asked.

"What's this screwy game called again?" Casey asked.

"Yeah, that little bit of info was left out of my invitation," Alex added.

"It's called Stealth Hunter," Mikey said. "Yours truly is the Stealth Master! I get thirty seconds head start and then you guys start hunting!"

"Picture capture the flag ninja style," Don said. "He'll be wearing a bandana that we have to take from him. So far, none of us have been able to protect the bandana for longer than fifteen minutes."

"Oh, I am _so_ going to introduce this game to my bros," Alex said, rubbing her hands together. Her gut dropped and she instantly turned her head to the left. She saw nothing. I_ could have sworn I saw something over there…_

"But then none of you is Michelangelo, Battle Nexus Champion! And he who moves like the shadow!"

Alex resisted the urge to hit him because she was too focused on the factory to her left. Something was really messing with her senses there! She couldn't keep her focus on one area for more than five freakin' seconds! It was like whatever was messing with her was everywhere at once, which couldn't have been possible, right? Nothing could be everywhere at once.

"Ow!"

Alex's attention snapped back to her group when she heard Mickey cry out in pain. She saw him reach out and grab the bandana quickly getting out, "One, two three go!" before running off. "Clocks ticking, bros! Catch me if you can!"

The redhead smirked, excited to start playing the game. The guys ran off after Mikey and Alex was just about to go with them, but she stopped feeling something to her left. She could see into one of the old builds and she believed to see something that looked like a man's figure. She narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out just what exactly she was seeing.

"Hey, guy? Did you se-" Alex started to asked, but then realized everybody was gone. She turned her head back to the figure just in time to see them bolt.

_Okay_, Alex thought. _Something weird is going on._ She changed direction and bolted into the building, following after the figure. _The guys can have their game. I'm going to play tag with this guy_. Alex didn't know. She felt uneasy as she chased after him, but she was still getting other feelings from the opposite direction.

Alex followed the guy onto the roof, then into one of the holes in the roof, landing on a beam in the area below. She dropped down, catching a glimpse at the guy that remained unmoving for a minute. He was looking at something, but it was extremely dark and Alex was having a hard time making out anything below her.

When she looked back up, the man was on the move. She had to push herself faster than she normally went in order to keep track of him. He was incredibly fast and from the heights he was jumping to and from, very strong. The skills were almost abnormally good. Alex was good herself, and she was having a difficult time keeping up with the character.

Alex followed the guy in and out of building, seeing the guys several times running on the ground looking for Mikey. Alex narrowed her eyes, glaring in confusion at the guy. _What are you doing? Following them? But why? What's your problem?_

"Let's spilt up and find that chowder-head," Alex could just make out Raph said.

_Oh that's just going to make more problems, isn't it?_ Alex asked herself. _We always have to make things harder for ourselves, even when we don't even know we're doing it!_

Alex landed on a rooftop and looked around. She had lost the guy! She turned around, swearing she had seen the guy land there. But where was he? Then there was movement in the corner of her eye. She saw a shadow jump through one of the broken windows on the building across from her.

_ I've got you_, Alex thought as she ran and jumped the gap, rolling before she got to her feet. She jumped down through a hole in the ceiling. She landed just a couple feet from the guy, who had been looking out the window at Casey. She could also see Leo looking in at where the figure was standing from another window. _Well, at least I'm not the only one that see's the guy_.

The guy moved quickly, jumping down to the ground floor. Alex followed him down and across the lot, into another building. He ran ahead of her, and for a moment she lost him, until she sat him jump up into the rafters. Alex jumped up after him, following shortly behind as they entered the room Mikey was in.

"Leo? Raph? You know I'm supposed to be the stealth guy here, right? Right? Anybody there?"

Alex dropped down from the ceiling in a defensive position. She had seen the guy jump around Mikey, intimidating him. He hadn't done that with the rest of the guys. That had to mean he was going to attack, right? It was the only thing Alex could think of that made sense.

"Alex? You're the one doing this?" Mikey asked.

"No," she told him, glancing around the rafters for the guy. "But I've been following the guy that is the whole time."

"So there's someone hunting us?" he asked, taking out his nun chucks.

"Yeah, and I don't think they're playing by the games rules either."

As if proving her point, a second after Alex said that, Mikey and her were hit over the back of the heads, knocking them unconscious.

* * *

"Who the shell are you?" Alex heard Mikey say as she slowly came back into consciousness.

The first thing her eyes fell on was the tall, Frankenstein built kind of man. He was wrapped in bandages and had pieces of him missing, like his right cheek. He also had a robotic eye and robotic shoulders. He laughed manically.

Mikey laughed with him before adding, "No, seriously, dude!"

The guy slammed his hands down on either side of Mikey's head threateningly. Alex squirmed, trying to get out of her restraints. She could hear squealing from the other room getting louder. When a large swarm of rats started to scurry into the room, Alex instantly realized that they had been what she had been sensing before. The rats were a threat and they were everywhere.

"Um, freaky psycho guy? I-Ah!"

"Okay, I thought I was okay with rats because of Master Splinter, but yeah. No. I'm not." Alex wiggled, trying to get her hands and feet free, but no matter how hard she tried to get out, she couldn't pull hard enough. "Yeah, I really don't want to get eaten by rats."

"Focus, Mikey," Mike said. "Block out the rats. The scary, hungry, turtle and human eating-ah!"

"Not helping, Mike!" Alex squealed. One of her hands gave a small pop. "Ow, ow, ow."

"What that your hand?" Mikey asked.

"My thumb," she informed him, pulling her hand out of the restraint. "I dislocated my thumb." She put her thumb in her mouth and held it, moving her hand to pop her thumb back into place, groaning when it did. She then unlocked her other hand and then feet.

Before she could make her way over to unlock Mikey, he broke his feet free and pulled the board off the wall, running as the rats tried to get onto the back of the board to reach him. She rolled her eyes, picking up her weapons that had been discarded by the man in the corner of the room, sweeping away the rats as she walked to make a path for herself. He eventually broke the board by hitting the wall, but the rats still jumped him.

"Get them off of me! Get them off of me!" he yelled, finding the exit.

"Mikey!" she heard several people yell as he ran out.

Alex followed him out calmly, putting her weapons away. "Alex, where have you been?" Casey asked.

"Oh, you know, chasing after creepers that have been following us since we got here," she muttered casually. "Nothing new."

"Hey, Leo! We found-" Raph said, turning to tell Leo, but found Leo running off into the large old smoke stack. "Aw, shell!"

"Come on!" Don told them.

The group ran in after Leo, and stopped when they found Leo standing in the center, looking up at the man who was standing at the top of the stack.

"Not him again," Mikey groaned.

"Again?" Don asked.

"That's the freak-wad that tied me and Alex up and tried to feed us to the rats," Mike said.

"Yeah, I've been following him the whole game," Alex said.

The man pulled a rope which closed the doors behind them, trapping them in. Through the many tiny holes in the structure, they could heard the little chirps and squeals from the rats. Their beady little red eyes staring at them.

"They're only rats," Casey stated. "How bad can this be?"

"Uh, Casey?" Mike said, pointing down to the ground where several human bones were resting.

"Okay, that's just gross," Alex said.

"Let's try the door!" Raph said, pushing against it.

"No good," Mikey said as he gave up helping.

"Get away from the walls," Leo instructed. "Now!"

"Easy rodents," Mikey said. "Nice rodents. Have I mentioned by sensei was a rat? Master Splinter? Any relatives here with us today?"

"Mike, you aren't going to get anywhere talking to them!" Alex told him, using her swords to it the ground, making them back up. _Hm_, she thought. _This could work._

"There must be hundreds," Don said. "We'll never take them all out at this rate."

"We don't have to," Leo said. "Just show them that we're one meal that's not worth the trouble."

Eventually, they got the rats to retreats.

"Turtle is off the menu," Raph said, kicking the last one.

Alex turned to Casey and asked, "Do you ever feel left out when they say things like that?"

"Yeah," he said. "I just chose to ignore it."

Alex shrugged and looked up when they guy started to yell angrily. He jumped off of the ledge and landed on his feet before them. Alex's eyes went wide_. Okay, he shouldn't have been able to do that. That was far too high up to jump from for a human to survive, even one like me._

Leo yelled and charged at the guy, engaging in battle. Alex's stance relaxed slightly, confused as Leo was the first to fight without thinking. That was normally Raph's job. It was just so unlike Leonardo to do anything without thinking it through.

She shook her head, snapping out of shock as she saw Leo get thrown to the ground. Casey ran in after him, followed by Raph. Raph got kicked in the stomach, while Casey was thrown into Don and Mikey as they moved in to fight.

Alex ran in next, slicing his, then low as the guy ducked her first attack. He went even lower and grabbed her foot, pulling it out from under her. Alex landed on her back, knocking the air out of her lungs. She gasped, trying desperately to get air into her lungs. Just as she was about to get some in, the guy stood up and stomped on her stomach, forcing the air out again. Alex groaned, rolling to her side as she clutched her stomach.

"Alex!" Leo yelled, getting back into the fight.

Alex was slightly out of it until she finally got air back into her lungs. Don went over to Alex, helping her up to her feet.

"The rats are coming back in!" Leo stated.

_Oh, you have got to be kidding me! Why can't we ever just have an easy night?_ Alex moved away from Don, picking up her sword again. She had to be ready to fight.

"Then it's time we busted out!" Raph yelled, running towards where Mikey was. Mikey dodged just in time for Raph to hit the wall, making a large enough hole for all of them to get out of.

"That's one way to make an exit," Alex said, holding her stomach.

"Nice going, Bro!" Mikey told the red masked turtle. "I always said you were as thick as a brick!"

Raph growled at his brothers comment, but turned his attention to more important matters. "What happened to ugly?"

As if on cue, the man yelled out, pulling them to look up and see he was standing on top of the stacks. He jumped from there to the rooftop of the building across from them.

"You've gotta admit," Mike said. "The dude has some sweet moves!"

"I've had enough of this madness!" Leo growled. He threw several ninja stars at him, all of which were locked except on, that stuck itself into his arm. It went completely unnoticed by him though, as if there was no pain in the injury at all.

The man laughed at Leo's failed attempt to stop him, but he wasn't laughing long. The ledge he was standing on gave out due to his weight and the throwing star. He fell backwards, through the unstable roof and through the floor.

"It's over," Leo said, walking away. "Let's get out of here."

Alex's gut dropped. She shook her head, looking at the other brothers. "I don't think its ov-"

The wall next to them exploded, sending debris everywhere. Alex got hit in the stomach with a large clump of brick, forcing her back to the ground, groaning in pain. Dust filled the area around them and Alec couldn't see anything, not even Raph who was laying on the ground right in front of her, or Don, who was actually on top of her left leg.

When the dust and dirt finally cleared, Alex was able to get up with Don's assistance. "Are you okay?" he asked, placing a hand on her stomach to make sure nothing was broken.

"I think so," Alex said. "Just some bruised ribs."

Don nodded his head and glanced back up, catching sight of Leo and the unknown man going into the nearby building. "Look!" Don yelled.

"Come on!" Raph instructed, leaning the way for them as they ran into the building after them.

"Leo!" Don yelled when they finally got in there. "He's mine!"

"Leo?" Alex muttered softly, eyes watching him in confusion. She had never seen him fight with such anger before. Not unless it was the Shredder.

"That guy's cracked, bro," Mikey said. "We can't leave Leo alone with him."

"We don't know the limits of his strength and skill," Don agreed. "Even with the six of us."

"If Leo gets in trouble, I'm the first one in there," Raph said, "but right now, it looks to me that Leo's got more than one monster to work out of his system."

"But this isn't the way to do that," Alex said.

Alex turned her back, unable to watch the fight. She couldn't stand seeing Leo fight like that. It wasn't him. It was some stranger fighting a cruel, angry battle. Leo was normally so fluid when he fought. It was beautiful. This wasn't. This was ugly, and Alex didn't want to dirty the image of him fighting like that to be what she imagined.

Her gut dropped once more. Her green eyes shot open and looked ground, not seeing anything. It wasn't until she heard the crumbling noise that she turned to look out the window that she saw the stacks were collapsing right overtop of them.

"Guy, get out of the way!" Leo yelled.

The stacks crashed through the ceiling, caving it in and filling the building with dust. Alex coughed, waving a hand in front of her face to try to see and get some fresh air. A couple moment later, the dust was gone and Alex could see once more.

"Leo!" Mikey yelled, looking around for his brother. He went to step forward to go and look, but Don stopped him.

"Mikey, watch your step," Don said.

The stacks had left a large hole into the basement of the building. Below they could see thousands of hungry rats. Leo and the monster man were trapped on one little platform still standing.

"It's rat central!" Mikey stated.

"Leo, let's go!" Raph said.

Leo put his swords away and turned to jump. He gracefully landed on the ground the rest of them were standing on, leaving the other platform unstable. It wobbled and gave out, but monster man jumped, landing on Leo's shell. Leo wobbled and fell off of their ledge, screaming as Raph and Alex grabbed him.

Don grabbed onto the same arm Alex had and helped pull him and the monster up, but before the monster could do anything, Leo turned and knocked him off his back, sending down into the pit of rats.

"Can we go home now?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, I'm with Alex," Mikey said.

As they made their way back to the gates, Alex said, rubbing her hand on her bruised stomach, "That was officially the second worse game night I have ever experienced."

"Second?" Casey asked. "What could possibly have been worse?"

Alex shivered. "Never, _ever_ mention twister to by brothers. _Ever_."

Once over the fence, Mikey looked down at his arm and noticed the bandana. "Hey, I still got the bandana on! It's been, what, forty-five minutes, easy! I am the stealthiest, heavy weight ninjaesk ninja turtle of all time."

Raph pulled the bandana off his arm and smacked him with it.

"Ow!"


	6. Grudge Match

I know I said I would have this chapter out sooner than this, so I'm really sorry. It just had a really hard time with it for some reason. I have to thank StillDoll13 for helping me with the chap/being Leo as well as dream lighting and XxWolfMan95xX for messaging me and getting my butt in gear.

Thanks go to the following for their reviews:  
_**StillDoll13** _\- Yeah, nobody can keep a straight face when it comes to Mikey.  
_**NYCelt** _\- It is like healing. I didn't actually think of having it that way. Thank you for pointing it out. And I'm so glad you like it so much!  
**_Erica_ **_**Phoenix16** _\- You are very welcome.  
_**dream lighting** _\- I already answered your questions so I'll just say I'm really sorry for how long it took!  
_**XxWolfMan95xX **_\- They will be admitting sooner than you think. Maybe not as soon as you'd like, but soon. ;)

* * *

Chapter 6

"Grudge Match"

"So you have to fight this guy again?" Alex asked Mikey over the phone. Michelangelo had called her to tell her that they had gotten a little visit by Kluh, the alien he had fought in the Battle Nexus Tournament and challenged with a rematch.

"_Yeah, in three days!" _Mikey exclaimed. "_I'm going to die!"_

"You're not going to die, Mikey," Alex sighed. "Don't be overdramatic."

"_Master Splinter, Don and Raph won't help me train for it because I haven't exactly been keeping up with my training,"_ he explained.

"Oh," Alex muttered, finally understanding where he was coming from. W_ell, that makes a little more sense,_ she thought. _It's a case of karma._ "Well, that's kind of harsh, even if you kind of had it coming."

"_Leo said he'd help me train though!"_ Mikey informed her.

"Really? Well, there you go! You're all set," Alex said. "He'll whip you into shape, that's for sure."

"_That's kind of why I'm calling," _Mikey muttered. "_Could you help? I mean, with the two of you, I'll win for sure. Plus, you'd make sure Leo's training won't be what kills me."_

"Is that so?" she chuckled. She had to admit that Mikey had a point though. With the way Leo had been acting lately, it couldn't hurt to have someone else there to make sure Leo didn't actually push Mikey harder than he could actually go. "Well, I guess I could help…"

"_Really? You'd help?"_ Mikey asked in a soft tone, as if shocked she'd agree.

"Of course, I'd help you knucklehead," Alex chuckled.

"_Thanks Alex, I can always count on you!" _Mikey sighed happily. "_You might have just saved my life." _

"Yeah, no problem, Mikey," she said. "Just give me a call when you guys are going out training and I'll meet you there."

* * *

Mikey was working his butt off for the majority of the time until the rematch. Alex tried to be there for him the whole time, but school prevented her from doing so. When she was there, however, she could see he was really putting everything he had into it, though he honestly believed he was going to died in the battle (despite the fact that there were spells in place to prevent that from happening).

However, there were very little breaks given to boy. Alex understood he needed to train, but there needed to be breaks in between otherwise he was going to hurt himself or get sick. Leo knew that. That was what Alex didn't understand. Why was Leo doing that to Mikey?

"Mikey, you're going to have to pick it up," Leo told him one time. "Focus for once, okay?" he sighed.

It was about ten o'clock, two days before the rematch. Alex met up with Mikey and Leo on top of The 2nd Time around. By the time she got up there they had already begun training, though Alex assumed they had been going all day, by the looks of the exhausted state Mikey was in.

"Hi guys," Alex greeted.

"H-Hey, A-Alex," Mikey huffed out.

"Hi Mikey," Alex said. She walked over to him and handed him a water bottle. "Here, drink up."

"Thanks," he said, collapsing on the rooftop, leaning against the raised ledge as he drank. "I really needed that."

"That's what I'm here for," she sighed, patting him on the shoulder. She glanced up at Leo and had to resist the urge to smack him on the back of the head for how hard he was pushing Mikey. Leo was also completely ignoring her for another thing, missing the glare aimed at his head.

"Mikey, I'm going to want you to take another lap around the block." Leo said crossing his arms. "Your time was slower than before."

Alex huffed, moving away from Mikey to stalk up to Leo. It was very evident by her expression that she wasn't happy in the slightest. "Probably because you had him do it about fifty times already," Alex said.

"More like seventy," Mikey scoffed.

"My God, Leo," Alex said. "Are you _trying _to kill him?"

"No, I'm trying to make sure he stands a chance," Leo said. "I'm not going to let him get hurt because he was arrogant."

"He's not going to stand a chance if you work him so hard he can't _stand_!" Alex corrected.

"He can rest later," Leo said narrowing his eyes. "Get started Mikey, clock just started ticking."

Mikey groaned and stood up, supporting himself on the half wall. "No," Alex insisted, stopping Mikey. "Why don't you go inside and take a break? April made lobster ravioli for dinner and there's leftovers in the fridge."

"Foooood," Mikey moaned, hopping over the ledge to the fire escape. He was gone before Leo could even protest.

Alex turned to Leo, her arms crossed as she stood up to him. "I know you're trying to help him, Leo, but can't you see you're running Mikey to the bone? What good is exhausting him going to do?"

"Alex," Leo sighed moving over to the edge of the building and cross his arms. "I've heard about these guys. They don't fight with honor, they will not pull their punches and will _hurt_ Mikey any chance he gets."

"You know that the Battle Nexus have spells preventing things like that from happening," Alex said. "He can't _really _get hurt. Maybe just his pride and maybe that's what he really needs. Teach him some humility!"

"I don't want that lesson to come with the price of broken bones. Besides, he's representing our family," Leo muttered.

"Losing won't bring dishonor to the family name, Leo," Alex said.

"I'm not saying losing will! But how he conducts himself will." Leo retorted.

"What? You don't think asking you to help train him proves that he's taking this seriously enough?" Alex asked. "Why the hell would he put himself threw this otherwise?"

"Pride? He's been full of that lately."

Alex scoffed. "Yeah, he's scared, but he's more scared of getting beaten to a pulp. He wants to stand a _chance _in there."

"I'm trying to give him that chance, now are you going to stand in my way, Alex?" Leo asked her, not once had he called her Hime.

"Yes, yes I am," she stated. "You're going to far, Leo! And the way you've been acting? You're going to spiral out of control!"

"There is nothing wrong with the way I'm acting! We all got a reality check! We're mortal, very very mortal! And half the time in our lives something is trying to kill us! Well I'm not going to let my family get caught in a situation like that again," Leo snapped.

"By pushing everybody to the breaking point? Leo, you can't do that! You're going to make them hate you. You're going to suffocate them and they're going to resent you for that. You have to let them live their own lives. Make their own mistakes! Otherwise you're going to end up bitter and alone! Do you want that?"

"I can shoulder the hate just fine. I'll willingly take all the hatred and resentment happily if it means my family is safe!" Leo said.

It broke her heart to hear him say that. She didn't know that was how he felt. That was a heavy burden to carry and it was one that he shouldn't have to carry. It wasn't like he could protect everyone. He didn't _need _to protect everyone. "You can't protect everyone!" Alex yelled. "Don't you get that?"

Leo glared at her, taking a step back. "We're done talking."

Alex huffed despite the fact that hearing him say that made her stomach sink in a bad way. "_Now_ you're going to stop? You're just going to run away?"

"I'm not running away from anything," Leo said and jumped down onto the fire escape.

_That's exactly what you're doing, Leo_, Alex thought, shaking her head.

* * *

"I really appreciate you coming to support me," Mikey told the group around him.

Master Splinter was standing in front of the brick wall, drawing the symbols with chalk to create the portal to the Battle Nexus. Leo was standing next to the symbols, hands folded as he waited to chant the incantation to bring them to their location.

Alex stood off to the side of Master Splinter with Mikey, while Raph and Don were on the other side of Leo. She stood with her arms crossed, keeping her eyes on Mikey to make sure he was okay. She knew that Leo hadn't taken her advice in easing up on Mikey, and that made her extremely concerned for the boy. Was he in any condition to fight? Was he rested enough?

"Support?" Raph scoffed. "Ha, I wouldn't miss this beatin' for all the world."

"Raph," Alex scolded in a sigh.

"What?" Raph asked back.

The portal opened, and Alex dropped the subject as she entered in after Mikey. They were taken outside of the city, in the exact same place where Alex had arrived with Master Splinter the first time she ever went there. Alex found it felt as if it had been so long since she had last been there, when in reality it hadn't been all that long.

"Well, looks like no one's home," MIkey said. "Might as well head bac-ow!"

"Raph, would you lay off?" Alex sighed. "You don't think he's worried enough without you doing this stuff?"

"It's nothing he hadn't brought on himself," Raph answered.

"But as his brother you shouldn't do this to him," she pressed.

"No, it's my job as his brother _to _do it," he corrected.

"Come, Battle Nexus rules dictate Michelangelo must present himself in the pavilion of past champions,"

_I get to see my mother's statue again?_ Alex thought, following in the back of the group. She still couldn't grasp the fact that her mother, the woman that prefer doing kata and perfecting the beauty and dancing styles of martial arts was a champion of the Battle Nexus. She had never seen the trophy she received from winning. She parents never showed them any of the money her father received from saving the Daimyo's son, not until she was given their savings when they died. And even then, she had thought it was their savings from the dojo, not from anything else.

She wondered if they would have ever told any of them about their past events once she became of age, or whatnot, but she didn't know. And she never would. That was one of the only things that still really bothered her about not having them around. Missing them and wanting them was still there, but she had come to terms with what had happened. The smaller questions still stuck with her though.

Alex went right up to her mother's statue when after entering the pavilion. She looked up at the semi detailed familiar face. The girl sighed, her thoughts wandering back to the questions she had. She only turned back around when she heard Raph talking to Mikey. When she turned around, she caught Leo looking at her, watching her examine her mother's statue. When he caught that she saw him, he quickly looked away and to his brothers.

"Knock it off, Mikey! You're gonna attract pigeons," Raph said. Though, Alex didn't scold him this time. She found that remark better than his previous comments.

"I think somebody's jealous," Mikey said.

"I thought we talked about this, Michelangelo," Alex sighed. SHe turned and joined the group once more, leaving her mother's statue behind.

Alex blinked, her stomach warning her of another presence. She turned to see Don and Leo looking over to the corner. Hiding behind a statue, peeking out around it looking at the group shyly was the little Ultimate Ninja. Alex remembered the guys telling her all about their adventure where he was separated from Drago and returned back to a young boy by Lord Simultaneous.

"Look's like the Ultimate Ninja's looking for a rematch, Leo," Don said.

"The Daimyo's son," Leo muttered.

"Honored guests," another voice said, drawing their attention away from the young child. The Daimyo was standing several feet away from the group with the Jeoji floating next to him. "Welcome once again to the Battle Nexus!"

"Old friend," Splinter greeted with a bow. "It is good to see you well."

"And you, old friend," the Daimyo said in return. "You must be proud to see your son Michelangelo honor you in battle once more."

"Couldn't I just honor him back home?" Mikey asked. "You know, breakfast in bed, a foot massage. "

"Ah, don't let him fool ya. Daimyo," Raph said. "Mikey can't wait to get in there and prove he's the real champion." Raph threw several punches at Mikey, teasing him more.

"I remember some things, but I remember you," the young boy said, moving next to Leo. "Did we play together?"

"Uh, yeah," Leo lied. "We did."

"You shall be my friend," he told him.

"Sure," Leo said, patting the boy's head.

Alex smiled softly at the two. _I guess some of my Leo is still there_, she thought. He was still kind and was sweet to the now small boy that had once tried to kill him and marry Alex. I just hope I can get more of that back.

"You're pretty," UN said, looking over to the redhaired girl. "Are you a princess?"

"Uh, well," Alex stammered, rubbing the back of her neck.

"She is, son," the Daimyo informed the boy.

"She's a pretty princess," the young boy added. "Don't you think so?" he asked Leo.

"U-Uh, um," Leo muttered, his cheeks turned red. "Uh, s-shouldn't we, uh, what's thi-"

Mikey laughed and elbowed Don. "That's a yes," he muttered.

"Shut up, Mikey," Leo mumbled, turning away from Alex and the boy.

"Princess, we have a team on standby," Daimyo told her.

"A team of what?" she asked. "And why are they on standby."

"To fit you with the finest robes, of course," Daimyo answered. "Jeoji, bring the girl to be pampered."

"What? Wai-!"

* * *

"Every time," Alex grumbled as she slowly made her way to the terrace where the Daimyo, Master Splinter and the rest of her party were. "Every time! Why the heck do they have to dress me up like a doll? I'm a _fighter_, not a public figure."

Just as her previous time there, Alex had been taken away and dressed in beautiful robes. The kimono hanging on her frame this time around was primarily black with red flowers printed on the fabric. The kimono was beautiful, she admitted, but it wasn't exactly her thing. She wasn't the kind of girl that the kimono really suited, just like how she wasn't much for dressing up to begin with. She very much preferred jeans and tee-shirts.

Alex walked out onto the terrace, her hands folded inside the sleeves of the kimono. Before her stood Ammag, Kluh's father. He looked dejected. Alex walked around him, making her way over to the rest of the group, who all looked on edge.

"Did something happen?" she aske simply, look over the ledge down to the arena. Mikey was standing over Kluh, arms raised. "I missed the match?" she groaned. "This is why I don't like getting dressed up!" Alex groaned. "I miss everything!"

* * *

"Alexandra," Master Splinter said, will you retrieve Michelangelo and Leonardo so that we may return home?"

Alex stood up from her cushion with a nod. "Sure, no problem Master," she told him. She left the room as Splinter and the Daimyo engaged in another conversation, and while Raph was teasing Don about something Donatello had said.

Alex ended up finding Mikey walking up to Leo in the main chamber, where the presenting of the medal had been conducted. She hung back, sensing that Mikey wanted a moment with Leo alone. She watched from the doorway, leaning against screen door gently, making sure not to break it.

"Leo, I wanted to say thanks," Mikey said, placing a hand on Leo's shoulder.

Leo turned to Mikey and place his hand on his shoulder. "You did good, Mikey. You did good," he said. "I'm proud of you. You showed real courage and honor out there. No need to thank me, that was all you, little brother."

"Shucks Leo!" Mikey said. "You'll make me blush!" he joked.

Alex moved forward, walking with slight difficulty in the the kimono. She tried to be as silent as she could, not to disturb the moment between the two brothers.

"But it also doesn't give you bragging rights, understand? I mean that's what got you into this mess with Master, Don, and Raph," Leo told him seriously.

"I know." he sighed. "I'll try not to brag. Too much."

"Not at all, would be preferred," Alex said with a small smile, making her presence known.

"See? Now you have both me and Alex as witnesses. No bragging," Leo said pointing a finger at him. "We're already proud of you, no need to remind us."

"Alright, alright!" Mikey exclaimed.

"Master Splinter wants us back," Alex said. "We're going home."

"Cool! I could use a nap," Mikey said. "Meet you guys back there!" he yelled as he out of the room, waving at them.

Leo looked to her. "Hey, Alex, I-" Leo started before breathing in and out. "Sorry for snapping at you before, it was dishonorable of me to force honor onto Mikey," he chuckled slightly.

Alex bit her lip and shrugged. "It's okay, Leo," she said. "You were trying to do the right thing. Your heart was in the right place and in the end everything worked out."

"I suppose, I'm just glad everyone came out okay. Besides, I wasn't wrong about someone trying to kill us every other day," he chuckled.

"Okay, so _maybe _you were right about that," Alex laughed, starting to lead Leo out of the room.

"Why did it have to be that part?" Leo chuckled under his breath before placing her hand on her arm and leading her out like a gentle-turtle.

Alex blushed, trying to ignore the butterflies in her stomach. "What can you do? We attract danger. And we come out on top by kicking some serious butt."

"Vacation would be nice though."

"I agree," Alex said. "It's been too long since I've been on a proper vacation that didn't involve me healing up from injuries."

"Knowing us, someone would try and kill us on vacation."

"At least it would be on vacation?" Alex tried to justify. He gave her a look. "Hey, a girl can dream."


	7. A Wing and a Prayer

Chapter 7

"A Wing and a Prayer"

Alex loved rain. She loved to sit inside and watch it hit the window pane in April's apartment. She loved to listen to it as she laid in bed reading or trying to fall asleep. She even loved going out and playing in it with her brothers when she was little before going inside to have hot chocolate that her mother prepared for them.

What Alex didn't like was having to walk almost all the way across town in it because her brothers all fell asleep during their movie night. They were all exhausted because of the dojo and getting back into their regular lives, and Alex understood that, but that didn't mean she had to be happy about getting soaked to the bone walking home in a downpour.

The girl couldn't help but sigh as she saw a gang of Purple Dragons hanging out in an alley, as the usual cliche. She was really getting tired of running into those bums, and as she walked by, she prayed they'd just leave her alone.

"Hey, hey, don't we know you?"

_Yes, I've kicked your butts before_, she thought to herself. She wouldn't dare say that to them though. After all, if there was a chance she could walk right on by without having to fight, she'd try her best to do that.

"Wait, isn't she with those lizard things?"

"Yeah, grab her!"

Alex just rolled her eyes and turned to confront the gang members. "Oh for the record? They're not lizards!" She didn't wait for them to attack her. Instead, she did a front flip, kicking the guy closest to her with her foot coming down on his neck. The next guy brought his arm back to punch her, but Alex didn't give him the chance. She swung her leg out and made contact with his ribcage, causing him to hunch slightly, which put him in the perfect position to roundhouse kick him in the head.

The last guy disappeared from her sight though, as she focused primarily on those two. she didn't remember him until he hit her over the side of the head with a pipe. Alex cried out, falling to the wet ground with blood mixing with the rain water. She tried to get up, but her head was spinning and the guy kicked her in the ribs, sending her back down into the puddle.

"One should never harm a lady!"

And suddenly, the guy behind her was gone. He was lying flat on the ground unconscious, like his two other friends. She would have gotten up and stood up in defensive position, but she was too dizzy to even get to her feet yet.

"Milady, are you alright?"

Alex glanced up, her eyes coming in contact with a tall, muscular blond with white angel wings. She had seen videos on the news in regards to this birdman. They were calling him the Guardian Angel. He helped her up to her feet, holding her until she could stand steady on her own.

"Uh," she muttered, her eyes going straight to his muscles. It had been a long time since she had seen someone as handsome and good looking as him. And he had called her Milady and beautiful. How could she not blush and be flattered. "Y-Yeah, I've had worse."

"You fight with great skill," he told her. "I had no doubt that you would have made a comeback in your fight. But i could not just stand there and let a beautiful young maiden get injured."

"H-Honorable," she pointed out. "I'm Alex, and thanks for your help."

"It was truly my pleasure," he said. "And I am Raptarr. And now that you are safe, I shall take my leave. Good evening." He jumped up into the air, stretching his wings and flying away.

"….Bye…" _God, that man is beautiful..._

* * *

"Hey, Master," Alex greeted, moving to sit next to him on the couch.

"Good evening, Alexandra," he said, turning to her with a smile. "Child, what happened?"

She had iced her black eye all night once she got home the night before, and she had placed a bandage on the cut on her head, but that didn't mean she still didn't have bruises from the thug.

"Oh, you know, the usual," she answered as if it were nothing. "Purple Dragons."

"As long as you are in good health," he pointed out.

"I'm okay, but thank you for the concern, Master," she said.

The front doors opened, and Alex could hear the guys all shuffling in, muttering amongst themselves. She didn't really pay too much attention to them though, her focus primarily on the television of one of the shows Master Splinter had been watching. She hadn't spent much quality time with the rat lately, she she thought this was a good time as any to do so.

"Clear the couch!"

Alex looked back, seeing Raph and Don carrying Raptarr over to them. Alex was off the couch in a second, Master Splinter following her lead. They placed him on the couch, mindful of one of his wings.

"What happened?" Alex asked, kneeling down next to Raptarr, placing a hand to his forehead.

"He was fighting with some metal winged guy," Don said. "He got hurt."

"He's regaining consciousness," Master Splinter stated.

"Where am I?" he asked groggily. "Alex?"

"Wait, you two know each other?" Mikey asked. "And you didn't introduce me? Geez Alex!"

"Not the time, Mike," Alex scolded. "Raptarr, you're safe. I promise."

"But this place...it is an Y'Lyntia stronghold," he said.

"Yeah, well, that's a long story," Raph stated.

"You're the guy that papers call the Guardian Angel. I got all the clippings!" Mikey explained. "You're famous."

"Alex, who are these people?" Raptarr asked.

"They're friends," she assured him. "Trust me. You can trust them."

Raptar tried to sit up, but groaned in pain. Splinter pushed him back down. "You have damaged one of your wing. Do not move," Splinter ordered.

Master Splinter placed his hands on his wing and arm, pressing into a specific spot before letting go. Raptarr sat up, looking far less pained than he had a moment before. He got up, rubbing his arms. "It is much better," he said.

"I simply manipulated pressure points in your shoulder to redirect the flow of chi in your wing," Splinter explained.

"Thank you, I-Mephos! The Diadem! Where is it?" he asked frantically.

"Uh, if you mean your headband, that guy with the metal wings took it," Don told him.

"No!" Raptar exclaimed. "It will spell the downfall of my people! With it, Mephos will spark a new civil war. Countless innocent lives will parish!"

"Don't sweat it, Mr. Guardian Angel, Sir!" Mikey said. "We'll just kick tin wings butt and get your Diadem thingy back!"

"I cannot ask you to help." he said. "I am already in your debt and where I come from, that is no small thing."

"And you saved Mikey," Leo said. "We take that pretty seriously too. We'll help you, but we need to know everything."

"Every well," he said. "My name is Raptarr. I am an Avian."

"I knew it!" Don exclaimed.

"We were a race of beings created as slaved by the ancient Y'Lyntians many eons ago. Y'Lyntia was the world of wonders. Through the limitless power of their crystal sun, the Y'Lyntians had built a Utopian society far ahead of its time, but it had it's dark side.

"We Avians were treated like animals by our true Y'Lyntian taskmasters. We were worked like slaves to build their paradise, then forced to live apart in a floating cage so we would not defowl their precious city by our inferior presence.

"Then one day, there was war. The outside world have had enough of Y'Lyntian's ironfisted rule. And so had we. The slaves of Y'Lyntia have united against our cruel slave masters. The rebellion raged! Irony of ironies, it was our bird cage prison that in the end saved us all.

"My ancestors managed to free it from its tether, as Y'Lyntia finally sank beneath the waves. Savaging precious fragments of Y'Lyntian crystal sun. The Avians combined the shards into incredibly powerful energy core. Powerful enough to keep our floating area lofted forever. Their prison have been transformed into a home. My people were free. For centuries, we Avians have kept ourselves cut off from the outside world. But there were those who believed that we were destined to rule over the surface world, not to hide from it. The leader of this movement was my best friend, and comrade, Mephos.

"He lead his followers in a revolt that pitted Avian against Avian, brother against brother. The war ended with Mephos' capture. For his crimes against our people, the Avian Council sentenced Mephos to be exiled to the surface world for all time. His wings taken from him. I stayed on the surface world to watch Mephos, and to stop his attempts to return to the Avian city. Living here in your world, I have learned much. And have been able to help those in need, and I have stopped Mephos' plans several times.

"But now, with my Diadem, he will be able to find the Avian City, and entered it unopposed. The surface world is doomed. Imagine a floating city that can only be detected with a crystal Diadem. The immense power of the crystal energy core makes the Avian city an unspeakable weapon of mass destruction, and soon it will be Mephos' to command."

"Raptarr, it'll all be okay," Alex told him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "We've dealt with situations like this before."

"Just give me a couple minutes!" Don said, running off to his lab.

"I do not understand," Raptarr said. "How could you all possibly help without the ability to fly?"

"Don's brilliant!" Mikey told him. "We'll figure something out."

"I promise, Raptarr, everything will turn out right," Alex assured him.

"Thank you, Alex," he said. "Saving you has turned out to be most helpful, for both of us, it seems. It is not everyday you meet such a strong female warrior such as yourself, with odd willing friends."

Alex bit her lip and blushed. "I'm going to take that as a compliment," she laughed, sounding much more like a giggle.

Raptarr got up, looking around for a couple minutes while they had the time. Mikey rushed over, taking her by her arms and shaking her slightly. "Why didn't you tell me you knew him!" he demanded.

"I just met him yesterday!" she told him.

"You should've called me right after it happened! Dude, this is awesome!"

"You are such a nut!" Alex pointed out.

He just shrugged and let her go. "Donnie! Are we going or what?" Mikey whinned.

"_, prepare to be amazed!" He pulled off the sheet from the table to show five oddly shaped backpack looking things.

"Tech-pack thingys?" Mikey asked.

"What's so amazing about that, hotshot?" Raph asked.

"Why how kind of you to ask. Just watch and be amazed!" He picked one up and slipped it on. He pressed a button and out came flaps for wings.

"Cool!" mikey exclaimed.

"I've been working on an upgraded version of the tech-pack that can fly!" Don said.

"But we still have a problem," Leo pointed out. "Without a crystal diadem we won't be able to find the city."

"But your home is an Y'Lyntian outpost," Raptarr pointed out. "Surely there are Y'Lyntian power crystals here."

"Um," Mikey muttered. "We kinda used them all to help some of our friends."

"It's a really long story," Don added.

"What of the memory crystals?"

"The what?" Alex asked, voicing what everybody was wondering.

"Let us see," Raptarr muttered. He walked up to one of the pillars and traced his fingers along it. "Here." The wall glowed green for a moment. spreading all the way up to the center of the ceiling. "It is still here." A platform lowered down, showing them a huge cluster of crystals. He flew over and grabbed a couple. "Perfect. These will do."

"Whoa," Mikey mumbled.

"Where's that come from?" Raph asked.

"I thought I scanned the whole lair from top to bottom for crystals," Don thought. "How?"

"It's….an Avian thing," Raptarr exclaimed.

"Eh, good enough for me," Alex said, taking one of the packs for herself. "You boys ready or what?"

* * *

"Your hospitality has been most generous," Raptarr told Splinter. "Thank you, Splinter." Raptarr lifted off the ledge, Alex following right behind.

"Oh, this is so cool!"' she laughed as she floated next to the Avian.

"Flying is rather enjoyable, isn't it?" Raptarr said.

"I could so get used to this!" she giggled. spinning around as the guys caught up to them.

"Remember the plan. Mephos' diare focus should be his own undoing.

"One question," Mikey piped up. "Are we there yet?"

"Actually yes," Raptarr answered.

"Wooooow," mikey muttered.

"You said it, Mikey," don added.

The large spherical domed city finally came into view through the clouds, shimmering in the sun's light.

"Am I the only one that would feel uncomfortable living there. I'd be afraid it'd fall out of the sky," Alex admitted.

"I'd rather have my feet on the ground," Raph agreed.

"Where do we look for this Mephos first?" Leo asked.

"How about there?" Mikey pointed. The largest tower had a great large red bolt shoot out from it.

The group of six made it to the tower, entering through the large entryway.

"Now, let's destroy one of the surface dwellers cities!" It was just as they all described. The Mephos Avian was techically wingless, except for the large metal, man-made wings on his back.

"I think not, Mephos!" Raptarr protested.

"Remember us? Well, now we've got wings!" Mikey said.

As part of the plan, the group lifted off, pushing forward through the air towards Mephos.

"Destroy them!" Mephos ordered.

The guys focused on taking out the traitorous soldiers while Alex went to the elders. "Is everybody alright?" she asked. "Nobody hurt? No? Okay, good. Why don't we just-" Alex's stomach dropped, and she instantly spun around to see Mephos and Raptarr fight moving over towards them. "Move!" she ordered, taking one of the elders and moving them to the floor, covering them with her body to shield them.

"Are they cleared?" Leo asked her.

"Yeah, it's all yours!" she answered.

Raptarr was forced to the ground, pinned by Mephos, who didn't seem to notice that the guys were making their way to the crystal to remove it from the control. Mephos, once he figured out what they were doing, went after the turtles that were tossing it around like a hot potato. Alex made her way to Raptarr, who was in a good eal of pain.

"Easy," she told him, helping him sit up.

"No, I must help," he protested.

"They have it under control," Alex said. "You have to trust us."

"No! I'm too close! Noooo!" Mephos yelled as he was stucked into the power crystals hold.

One of the elders took the crystal and put it back into it's rightful place. Mephos was taken into custody shortly after that, leaving Alex and the guys with the elders and Raptarr to depart.

"Thank you for your help. You saved our city," The elder said.

"We owe you a debt of gratitude," Raptarr said.

"You know, maybe someday our worlds will could, you know, coexist," Don thought.

"Perhaps," the elder said. "Until then, I trust the secret of our existence will remain safe with you."

"You have our word," Leo said.

"I only have one request," Mikey said.

"Name it!" Raptarr told him.

Mikey handed the camera to Leo. "Somebody take my picture with Raptarr!"

"Why?" Don laughed. "You gonna sell it to the Weekly Weird News?"

Mikey just laughed. "Nah, it's for my superhero team up scrapbook...Why? How much do you think they'd give me for it?"

"With you in the picture, a nickel, maybe less," Raph answered.

* * *

Alex joined the guys at the lair after their adventure with the Avian people. She was ready to crash in her bed, but there was something she needed to deal with first. Something she needed to take care of before she could even think of doing anything.

Confront Leonardo.

He had been acting weird, or weirder than he had been lately, towards her. She couldn't figure out why though. What did she do? Was it something she did? Or was it just because of his mood swings as of late? She just couldn't wrap her head around Leo lately. Normally she could tell exactly what was wrong and what he was thinking. But lately he was erratic and unpredictable, which definitely was not the definition of Leonardo.

Alex knocked on his bedroom door and waited for an answer before she let herself in. It never came, so she opened the door and went right on in without permission.

"Woah, Alex!" Leo said standing up from his bed. "Seriously? You couldn't wait til I answered the door?" he asked irritably.

Alex shut the door and leaned against it, crossing her arms over her chest. "From the looks of it, it doesn't look like you were even going to bother," she stated. When she opened the door, that was when she heard movement. He hadn't been planning on letting her or anybody in.

"So what if I wasn't? It's my room right? So if I want to hide in my room, I will." Leo grumbled to her.

Alex sighed. "Did I do something wrong?" she questioned right off the bat.

"What?" Leo asked her.

"You've been ignoring me for pretty much the whole night," Alex told him, clarifying what she was talking about. "Did I do something wrong?"

"Well if you didn't notice we were kind of busy saving the world." Leo crossed his arms. "Again. But of course you we're a bit distracted yourself." he muttered harshly.

Alex narrowed her eyes. "What are you talking about?" _Distracted? What had she been distracted by?_

"You were more focused on the _charming _Raptarr to really focus on us and the mission," Leo said.

The girl's mouth fell open. "You're kidding me, right?" She pushed off the door and made her way further into his room. "You honestly think I'd risk the mission because of a _guy_? You honestly think that _low _of me?"

"Every time he talked to you, you'd swoon and sigh." Leo pointed out. "You'd get all flustered and giggly. You weren't exactly telling him to stop flattering you either."

He had a point. Alex didn't stop him. And she hadn't wanted to. When was the last time a guy flirted with her? When was the last time someone took an interest in her? Let alone someone that gorgeous? She couldn't recall a time and that brought the girl down.

"So what if I didn't?" she retorted. "That doesn't mean I don't have my head in the game! I always have your back! I always have your brothers' backs. When have I ever let you down like that, huh?"

"How about tonight? Flirting in front of us doesn't exactly make us comfortable you know," Leo grumbled. "Especially right in front of us with a guy you don't even know."

"For cry out loud, Leo! So what if you're uncomfortable? Did you ever once stop to think that it wasn't about you? The world doesn't revolve around you and your brothers, you know," she told him, her voice raising. "And so what if I don't know him. It's not the point! I don't like Raptarr. Sure, the guy has a body of a freakin' god, but so what? It was just refreshing to have someone take notice in me!

"_Me_!" Alex turned away from Leo, angry tears building up in her eyes. She hated the fact that she was so worked up that she was to the point of frustrated tears. "The freaky girl that can kick pretty much any guy's butt and hangs out in the sewers! Guys don't generally like that, you know! It intimidates them! G-Guy don't look at me like that.

"And I don't blame them!" she exclaimed. "I mean, look at me? I'm a mess, Leo! I'm forward, I'm too strong for their liking. I'm covered in scars! Who wants to look at that? Huh? What guy in his right mind would want his girl to look like the way I do? Who acts the way I do?

"So yeah, I liked the attention being on me for _once in my life _because whenever I'm out patrolling with you guys, you're all everybody see's! Do you know how many times people have left me out while they address us? How much it seems like you guys forget I'm there? That I'm not a _turtle_? It's so _frustrating_!"

"You don't think we don't notice you?! That I don't notice you!? Noticing you has basically been what I've been doing all night! And it's because you're so amazing at kicking butt and strong and hot as hell!" Leo said before his face seem to explode in a hot red blush. "I mean...the only reason people notice us is because we are turtles, as in freaks of nature. Not all attention is good, you know!"

Alex totally seemed to miss the fact that Leo had admitted the fact that he thought she was hot. She was too focused on how Leo thought of himself as a freak of nature. That he thought so low of himself. "You're not a freak of nature, Leo," she insisted.

"Alex...teenage mutant ninja turtle." Leo said pointing to himself. "Break that apart, does any of that sound in the least bit normal?"

"Do Triceratons and robots with human minds transferred inside of them? Utrom walking in machines? Four boys getting controlled by an alien? A young woman interested in dating a wack job vigilante? And a girl who's best friends are turtles? Does any of _that _sound _normal_?" she asked. "Okay, so maybe you're a freak," Alex said with a shrug, "but then again, aren't we all?"

"But they have a kind. There's more of them. But there's just us and only us in all of existence. While we have each other, we're still alone," Leo mumbled. "Even Raptarr, a freaking Guardian Angel, belongs to species."

"You have a species too," she told him, sitting down on the corner of his bed. "You're just kind of endangered? There are four of you."

"Tch, yeah. And there will only ever be four of us." Leo mumbled a bit, knowing she would understand what he meant. He sat down next to her, his shoulders slumped as his elbows rested on his knees.

"Well, I guess you're just going to have to make your existence count, now aren't you?" she said. "Let the world know just how special you guys really are." She leaned into him, bumping him with her shoulder.

"Kinda need to hide our existence, Alex. Raptarr would have an easier time than us doing that too. All he needs to hide are his wings. And even if he didn't he'd be accepted a lot quicker than we would be."

"Nah, I don't think so," Alex said. "I think, sooner than any of us think, you're going to be known world wide. And the headline won't be '_Scary Frog Creatures Discovered in NYC Sewers._' You guys are going to make a difference, I just know it. You're going to change lives. I mean, look how much you've changed mine."

"Not all of us are that hopeful, Alex." Leo sighed to her. "Thanks anyway. Sorry I got mad at you, it was more of an irritation at Raptarr and myself than you."

Alex shrugged. "And I'm sorry for putting us in that situation," she sighed. "And making you think that I wouldn't have your back."

"Don't worry about it. As you've seen just now, we all lose our focus." Leo mumbled.

"We're only human," she agreed. "And don't you dare challenge that expression, Romeo!" she warned him, pointing a finger in his direction.

"Alright, alright." Leo chuckled a bit.

Alex bit her lip and smirked, glancing up at Leo threw her lashes. "So, uh, you think I'm hot as hell?"

"I-I uh well I-I.. Get out of my room!" Leo said pointing to the door.

"Oh come on, Romeo!" Alex teased. "Don't be like that!"

"Out, out, out!" Leo said pulling her up from the bed and pushing her to the door.

"This is why Juliet killed herself! Romeo was so rude to her!" she teased as she got shoved into the hallway.

"Don't worry, I think Don has some poison for you." Leo teased right back as he closed the door.

Alex scoffed, rolling her eyes. She turned away from the door and headed to the exit. _Well, at least that's cleared up. And Leo's a little more like his old self. _she thought. She got inside the stone elevator and silently rode up to the warehouse. _Hot as hell, huh?_ She bit her lip. _Interesting_.


	8. Still Nobody

Chapter 8

"Still Nobody"

"Two hundred eight. Two hundred nine. Two-ten! Two-eleven," Leo counted.

Alex sat back against one of the steal beams, cleaning her tanto as the turtles did pull ups on the framework of the construction building they were all training on. Or either, they were training on. Alex had just gotten out of work at the dojo and was rather exhausted from all the training and teaching she had been doing for six hours after she got out of school. She went to hang with the turtles as they trained to get a little bit of time with them. Because she hadn't seen them for what felt like a month. Though it could very well have been a month…

One of the guy's shell cell's went off. Raph was the first to check to see if it was his, "Not mine," he said, putting it away.

Don went next. "Not mine."

"Don't stop," Leo ordered. "Mikey, you left your shell cell on!"

"I'm sorry, Mr. I'm-Going-To-Pump-You-Up Leonardo! But I didn't know we were going to be doing a pull up marathon!" Don smacked him on the back of Mike's head. "Ow!"

"Whoa, Don, don't smack Mikey. That's my job!" Raph scolded, doing the same as Donatello.

"Hey! Do I look like a pinata?" Mikey asked.

"Just answer your phone!" Don told him.

While Mikey was on the phone, Raph looked at Alex and questioned her. "Why aren't you doing this?"

"Because I already did my workout for the day," she said. "Now I'm just enjoying the show."

"Did you just hit on us?" Don asked jokingly, though there was a slight blush on his cheeks.

"Maybe," she muttered, smirk firmly in place. "You guys do have rock hard bods, after all. What girl wouldn't kill to see that?"

"Uh, ones that aren't attracted to green turtles?" Raph pointed out.

"Eh, details," she muttered, waving them off.

"Who was it?" Raph asked

"Nobody," Mikey answered with a snicker.

"Wait, nobody nobody, or _Nobody _nobody?" Alex asked, sheathing her tanto.

"I don't see how that made any sense whatsoever," Don pointed out.

"No, it makes perfect sense," Mikey said. "And it's _Nobody _nobody."

"Sweet! I haven't seen him since I brought him and Blake some cookies!" she exclaimed excitedly. The redhead hopped to her feet, stretching to get ready for the run they were very obviously about to go on to meet up with him.

* * *

The rooftops were not their form of transportation that evening. Instead, Alex found herself in the sewers with her boys running through sludge (a complete turn off, let her tell you!) until Raph stopped them at their designated manhole to take their leave. He went up first, followed shortly after by Leo, Alex, Don and Mikey.

They ran across the street and took shelter in an alley, out of clear sight of the street in case anybody looked out their window, or was passing by on the street.

"You sure this is the place?" Raph asked.

As if to answer his question, a man was thrown out of the boarded up doorway of the abandoned building they were next to. Nobody followed right after, chasing the person down the street to catch him.

"Uh, should we help or let him handle this…" Alex asked.

Nobody was forced to take cover in an alley as the thug started shooting at him with a small alien, most likely Triceraton wearon.

"Come on, he's getting away!" Mikey exclaimed.

Just as they were about to pass the alley Nobody had taken refuge in, a rope shot out, blocking their way. Nobody retracted it. "Let him go!" he told them.

"You're slipping, Nobody," Leo said. "That kid almost took you out."

"I told him to," Nobody informed them, turning to make his way down the alley. They followed him down as he continued to explain. "He's my informant. Goes by the name X-Ray. That performance you witnessed was just in case anybody's watching. X-Ray's infiltrate a dangerous new gang called the Turks, but they're beginning to get suspicious." He shot his grappling hook connected to his wrist to the building across from them. "Follow me," he said.

"Huh, follow him, he says," Mikey muttered as the group did just that.

Once on the roof, Nobody went on. "X-Ray said the Turks are planning to visit an old man who witnessed their leader trying to wipe out a gang member he thought was an informant." He moved behind the stairwell that lead to the roof, out of their sight. "They plan to take care of the old man. Tonight. If we can stop him, I think we can shut down the whole gang."He stepped back out, changed into a policeman's uniform. "I know some of these kids. Most of them aren't half bad. it's their leader. This Jencko. I have a plan, but I need extra eyes and ears to cover all the angles. Eyes and ears I can trust."

"A stakeout!" Mikey exclaimed excitedly. "Cool! Donuts and endless pots of cold coffee!"

"Something like that," Nobody said.

"Have you told Blake about any of this?" Alex asked.

"I have," he said. "He's waiting for a call in case anything heads south. Somebody had to stay at the station."

"So why the blue's uniform? You don't normally wear it," she pointed out.

"Makes me seem more trustworthy," Longer said.

"Okay, well, let us know if you need us, okay Longer?" she asked.

"Will do, Alex," he said, making his way to the stairs. "I'm going to check on the old man. He lives right downstairs. Stay here. I'll be back."

* * *

Being adaptable was always a requirement. Plans were always made, but the chances of the plan every truly going smoothly were always very slim. That just meant they had to think on the fly.

And that was one of their best skills.

After finding out that the Turks were coming in after the old man, Don and Mikey disguised themselves in the couple's clothes and went into their living room to pose as them. They'd stay there, take out the men that came in, and if anything else happened, Leo, Alex, and Longer would be out on the rooftop for plan B, which was to put Raph into play. Raph was to follow anybody that got away on his bike.

Which, of course, did happen.

Leo, Longer and Alex ran over the rooftops in pursuit, though they were obviously far slower than Raph and the car. Their destination wasn't just the warehouse though, it was the battleshell, where they'd rush after Raph to back him up, leaving Mikey and Don behind. Eventually, they met up with Raph.

"That's it up ahead," Leo said to the lone turtle outside over the comm link. "You ready to go, Raph?"

"Open the door, Leo, and let me in," Raph answered.

"Let him in?" Alex asked. "How are we letting him in?"

Leo smirked. "Just like this!" He pressed a button on the control panel and the Battle shell raised out a large ramming bar on the front of the 'Shell. The large industrial garage door on the outside of the warehouse was bashed through the second they hit it.

"Oh….I guess that'll definitely do that job," Alex muttered.

Once the Battleshell was into the old building, the group was ready to stop out for their battle, but before Leo could leave, he turned to Alex and said, "I want you to stay in here and call Detective Blake to get the pickup once we're done."

"What?!" Alex barked back in complete shock? "Why? You can use everybody you can get!"

"Just do it!" he yelled before jumping out of the Shell.

There technically wasn't anybody there to stop her, but Alex couldn't exactly just go against a direct order like that. But Raph, Leo and Nobody needed all of the help they could get. Alex couldn't exactly see how many gang members were in there, and that meant Leo didn't either, so why was he going in there knowing he could possibly be completely and utterly outmanned and outnumbered.

She supposed there was a need for someone to watch the thing to make sure none of the gang members tried to steal it, but this thing has to have had massive security if Donatello made it. Which, of course, it did. All that needed to be done was to activate it and nobody would be able to get in.

So why order Alex to stay behind? None of it made any sense to Alex. Leo had been acting more like himself after the Grudge Match, and then even after they fought after helping Raptarr. But then he goes and pulls something like this and Alex didn't know what to do. She'd tried to help Leo in whatever why she could, but what else was there to do?

Alex was left there to contemplate what to do until Raph came back to tell her to move the Battleshell into the alley across the street and to meet them all on the roof. She did, packing right behind Raph and once she was out, the two made their way up the fire escape to meet up with Leo and Nobody, waiting for Don and Mikey to join them.

"Well that's that," Raph said.

"I think, maybe, we've done some real good here today," Nobody said. "Without Jenko, those kids actually stand a real chance at a better life."

"I'd still like to know who hooked Jenko up with that mini arsonal," Leo pointed out.

"So would I," Nobody answered.

The door to the roof opened and out came Don and….an old woman version of Michelangelo. Alex couldn't help but smirk, the image burning into the back of her mind for later use when she needed a pick-me-up.

"Mikey, you can lose the dress now!" Raph said.

"Why? Do I look fat in this?" Mikey asked. "Tell the truth now, I can take it."

"Yes, Darling, it does," Alex told him.

"I'm just glad Mikey stopped referring to me as his husband!" Don said.

"Ew, ew! Incest. No incest please!" Alex gagged and visibly cringed.

"Didn't think of it that way…." Mikey muttered.

"Of course you didn't, you numbskull!"


	9. Ancient One

Chapter 9

"The Ancient One"

Everything was changing.

Alex knew that as time and life goes on, things were inevitably going to change. Like the death of her parents, the abduction of her brother. Finding her brothers, getting them back. Her best friend becoming evil, her best friend becoming good again. This best friend no longer holding the title of best friend. Four mutant turtles gaining that title. One mutant terrapin gaining something more than that….

Things would always change and Alex needed to learn how to adapt and accept. But….What if she didn't want to accept? What if she wanted Leo to go back to his happy self instead of this brooding, angry leader? She just wanted the boy that used to help her with her kata, and meditate with. The guy that would make her laugh unexpectedly by saying something funny because, generally, Leo wasn't the funny one. But he'd make her laugh. And he's make her feel safe.

He made her feel loved and at home.

But lately, all Leo seemed to do to her was make her angry, worried, and sad. This wasn't her Leo. Alex knew people changed and that sometimes you don't like the people they become so you drift apart, much like she had done with Fred, but she never thought that would happen to her and Leo.

And after when Don texted her that morning? That Leo had actually attacked Master Splinter in anger during training? Stating that he wasn't good enough to train him any longer? What was Alex supposed to do? This wasn't Leo. This wasn't _her _Leonardo.

So he was leaving to find another Master to train under. Leo was leaving, hopefully, to get better at both his state of mind and his training. But was leaving really the best move? Leaving his family? The people he cared for most? Was that a good idea?

Maybe it was. Maybe what Leonardo needed was to get away from all that to realize whatever he needed too.

And Alex didn't like that. Alex didn't like things that changed. Not like this, at least. What was she going to do when she went down to the Lair and Leonardo wasn't there? Who was going to train with her with swords? Leo and her were the only two that used them in battle. Neither his or her brothers used such a weapon.

Alex sighed, running her hand through her hair. Her green eyes stared at the two graves in front of her. She always did like to go see her parents when things were eating away at her. It didn't actually help her think or anything, but it was comforting to be closer to them when she wasn't exactly feeling herself. Just like when they were alive.

The candle lit in front of her crossed legs flickered, the flame moving with the wind. Her eyes shifted down from the stone to the white candle on the little stone ledge of the grave. The flame always seemed so hypnotizing to her.

"I thought I'd find you here."

Despite all of the emotions swirling around in her, Alex smiled. She turned her head to the right, her eyes now landing on a brown jacket clad turtle. She always found their disguises funny.

Alex laughed lightly. "Oh honey, you're not fooling anybody in that." she pointed out, standing up from her spot on the ground. She walked up to him and took the hat off the top of his head and placed it on top of her own instead. "I can see right through your disguise, Leo."

"There's no fooling you," he pointed out. He attempted to laugh and smile, but Alex knew he was having a hard time doing that. It's better than how he'd been lately though. At least he was trying. "From anything…."

"No, there isn't," she sighed.

"I should apologize," he muttered, turning away from her to face the tombs instead. He was embarrassed, the poor thing. "You've been trying to help me and I just refused to see that there was a problem."

"Most people are like that, Leo," Alex said. "As long as you realize it now, and you're sorry, there's nothing to forgive. Not in my eyes."

"But in mine there is," he said. "I haven't treated you well, far worse than you ever deserve."  
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," she laughed, trying to make him feel better.

"No, really. You deserve far better," he pressed, turning to grab her arm.

There was a crack of thunder overhead and the two figures looked up, just as the down washed down over them. The candle went out instantly, and in order to avoid getting drenched, Alex grabbed Leo's hand and pulled him to their left towards the large stone mausoleum just at the end of the section her parents were buried in. After, of course, she picked up the candle and the box of matches.

The door was always unlocked though heavy. It was dark inside, but on the opposite wall from the door was a large stained glass window of two doves with a ribbon that gave them just enough light for the two to properly see one another. Several feet into the mausoleum was a stone bench facing this window. Instead of having an open area under the legs, it was solid stone, just like the back of the bench. Alex lead him over to it and sat down, ringing out her hair as they went.

"Well, that was unexpected," she muttered. Once on the bench, Alex placed the candle and the matched under the bench where there was a bit of empty space. That way they'd be out of the way so the two could just talk without bumping into them.

Leo sighed and ran his hand over his smooth head. "I should probably go," he muttered. "I have to catch my boat."  
"You're leaving so soon?" Alex asked in shock. "I-I knew you were leaving but-"

"Master and I think it's best," Leo said.

"Do you know how long you'll be away?" Alex asked.

"Don't know," he answered honestly. "As long as it takes."

"To do what exactly?" Alex asked, her hand pacing on his arm.

"To get better," Leo answered, still not looking at Alex.

Alex nodded her head and looked to the colorful window. "Do you know where you're going exactly? Can I get an address to send care packages?"

Leo chuckled. "You know that would cost a small fortune," he said, turning to look up at her with a small smile

"You think I care about the money?" Alex asked, leaning in to make sure he stayed making eye contact with her. "I don't care about that. I care about _you_." Her hand slipped down his arm and to his hand instead, squeezing it tightly. "I've _always _cared about you, Leonardo."

Leo couldn't seem to break her eye contact. His hand tightened around her's just as her's did for him. "I….I care about you too, Alex. I care about you a lot."

Her heart swelled, and Alex couldn't help but duck her head slightly to have her hair fall in front of her face, hiding her blush. She used her free hand to push her hair behind her ear. She looked back up at Leo through his mask, wishing to see his eyes. "So...promise me one thing?"

"If I can I will," he told her, squeezing her hand tighter.

"Be safe," Alex told him. "And," she took a deep breathe, the thought of the possible thing to go wrong always swimming in her head, "come back to use?"

Leo nodded. "I'll always come back, Alex," he said. "My family is here. _You're _here."

Alex smiles and wrapped her arms around Leo's neck, latching onto him as if holding him like this meant he wouldn't go. But eventually, Alex had to let go. She knew that. She had to let him go and just hope he'd come back to her.

Alex pulled back, but not before placing a gentle kiss on his cheek. She smiled sadly and took his hand off the top of her head to place right back on top of his. "You go do what you need to do, hon, and we'll be right here waiting to welcome you back with open arms, okay?"

Leo smiled at her gently, his hand pushing her hair behind her ear for her. He leaned in, his lips pressing to the skin on her forehead, his green cheeks tinted from the red blush. "I look forward to coming back to that," he said.

Alex got up and walked him to the door, finding that the rain has stopped.

"Goodbye, Alex."

Alex just shook her head. "It's not goodbye. It's see you later."

"I guess I'll see you later then," Leo said, finally departing.

"Yeah," Alex sighed, leaning against the door as she spoke to herself. "I'll see you later."


	10. Scion of the Shredder

**Disclaimer: I don't know anything TMNT. I just own Alex and her brothers. **

* * *

Chapter 10

"Scion of the Shredder"

It was weird when the Lair was quiet enough to be able to peacefully sit on the couch to read. But when it was, it was one of Alex's favorite places to be with a nice good book and a hot cup of tea. She held her book in one hand, her feet pulled up under her, while her free hand ran up and down Klunk's back as the orange cat sat between her and Mikey, who was currently busy making a card tower on the coffee table.

Master Splinter sat in his chair, watching Michelangelo. Raph was beating away at his punching back. And Donatello was working in his sub. Everybody was in their own world doing whatever it was they were doing, and it was all nice and peaceful.

"_The Officer's Mess surged noisily as a crowd of doctors and nurses came off the night shift. The food line snaked through the dozen long tables, nd as Juliet reached the front she ladled four heapings of watery scrambled eggs into her metal bowl, hoping to devour as much food as possible before getting some sleep. Settling in a corner alone, she began to ravenously fork the curled wet strips of egg into her mouth, but when she saw Mother Hen approach, she slowed her intake." _

The book was _The Secret of Raven Point._ A book about a girl in the 1940's that lied about her age to enlist as a nurse in WWII in order to find her missing brother. Alex was so wrapped up in her book, that she was barely pulled out of the images floating around in her head when Mikey and Master Splinter started talking.

"That is an….impressive edifice, Michelangelo," Splinter complimented. "Dare I ask how many hours you have spent building it?"

"Good question, Sensei!" Mikey said, turning his head to look over his shoulder to Raph. "Hey Raph, what time is it?"

"Like I wear a watch?" Raph retorted. "How should I know? Hey Donnie! What time is it?"

"Beats me," Don answered. "Ask Leo."

And just like that, everything stopped. Mikey stopped his building. Raph stopped punching. Don stopped welding. Alex stopped reading. Master Splinter wa the only one to make a noise. A sad, tired sigh.

The redhead looked down at the worn down watch on her wrist. "It's eight pm," Alex muttered, answering the question.

"Sorry," Don said, coming down from his perch. "Leo's been gone more than two months and I still forget he's not here." Don slowly made his way towards the three in the living room.

"Master Splinter," Raph said, starting to make his way over as well, "When's that bum coming back anyway?"

"And is Leo coming back normal or like, _more _normal? 'Cause before he left he was acting kinda….you know…" Mikey said, twirling his finger next to his head to signal crazy. Though, he stopped right when Raph smacked him on the back of the head. "Ow! Hey!"

"I do not know, my sons," Splinter said. "Leonardo is on a pilgrimage to find the Ancient One, and to find answers. Such things are beyond time."

"Well, I miss having him around," Don said.

"As do we all. We must have faith that he will return when he is ready," Splinter finished.

"He promised he would, so I don't doubt he will," Alex added. "You're his family, after all."

"And you!" Mikey pointed out. "He can't leave his girlfriend!"

Alex just rolled her eyes. "I'm not his girlfriend, Mike."

"Mmmmaybe but you want to be!" Mikey went on to tease. "And he want you to be his girlfriend!"

"Michelangelo," Splinter scolded. "You should not meddle with the affairs of you family."

"But isn't it my job to tease him as his little brother!" Mikey asked.

"Yes, but not when he isn't physically present for you to perform your task," Splinter explain.

"Okaaaaaay, fine," Mikey sighed, accepting that explanation before going back to his tower.

Don and Raph stayed to watch Mikey finish his tower, but before he could even get another card on it, a loud ringing noise filled the lair. Far louder than any school fire alarm Alex had ever heard in her life.

"Why does everything always have to be loud!" Alex cried out, her hands clutching her ears. Before anybody could address this new happening though, the alarm died down and shut off completely. "Oh…..that's better. Thanks Don."

"I didn't do it," Don said. "That shouldn't happen." He hopped down off the ledge of the living room area and ran over to his security set up. "If something triggers the perimeter alarm, it should keep ringing until _I _turn it off."

The group followed after him. "Okay, so no more noise is a bad thing….who would've thought," Alex mumbled.

" It's not supposed to turn off by itself," he continued to ramble as he typed away. None of them knew what exactly he was putting into the computer, but they knew that whatever it was was complex and important. Especially if it had to do with securely. One of the monitors, as he went, snowed out. "Unless someone just deactivated our outer alarm system!"

_Bang. Bang. Bang. _

The whole Lair seemed to shake, knocking Alex into Raph. Once she gained her balance by placing her hand on the pillar next to them. She reached to her waist, desperate for a weapon. And of course, the one time she didn't bring her things with her was when she needed them most.

"Um, what is that?" Mikey questions nervously as Klunk hid behind his foot.

"Whatever it is, it's coming through the front door," Raph answered.

Once the door was off the hinge, the group jumped down and moved for a better strategic position to see what exactly was breaking into the Lair. But once the door was down, most of the wall holding it came down too. And right behind the rubble and emerging from the dust were several large robots with the foot symbols on them. And rushing out around the bots feet were foot soldiers.

"What the…?" Mikey muttered. "The Foot?"

"But how?" Don asked. "How did they find us?"

"Don't matter how they found us," Raph said. "They found us, now let's kick the shell out of them!"

Weaponless and more vulnerable because of it, Alex stayed back as the four Hamato's rushed forward to fight. It wasn't like Alex wasn't going to fight. She was just going to wait until they came to her. She couldn't afford to rush in like the others. She had to rely on close combat.

Several of the Foot Ninja ran passed the Hamato's to Alex, and the female had to jump back, duck, jump, and flip, not necessarily in that order, as swords were swung and fists were thrown. It was hard to get close up when there was the risk of getting stabbed through the chest with a katana.

Alex was good, but she wasn't that good when it came to being massively outnumbered. Maybe if it was just Purple Dragon goons that weren't all that bright to begin with, but trained foot ninja were something else entirely. She could take a two, three, maybe four tops all at once, but anything more than four was far too difficult with far too many factors and variables to consider. She was observant, but even Alex couldn't catch everything.

Which was how she got kicked in the face and thrown into the water in the middle of the Lair. She resurfaced, spitting out disgusting water. She treaded the water for a moment before a hand was placed in her face. She reached up and took it, making sure it was an alley first.

"There's too many of them! We have to back off," Donatello said.

"Back off? This is our home!" Raph protested.

Mikey offered Alex a hand and helped her out of the freezing water. "You okay?" he asked.

Alex merely nodded, her eyes scanning the Foot that were closing in from every angle around them. "Now what?" she questioned.

"Look," Mikey said, nodding his head to where their front door once stood.

The smoke was beginning to clear, but even though it wasn't fully gone, they could still make out a figure moving to come forward, stepping out of the drown dust cloud to address them. And what all of them saw was beyond their belief. They couldn't believe their eyes.

Because what they saw was the Shredder.

And the Shredder was supposed to be exiled.

Off world.

"Oh shell," Raph groaned.

"No way! It can't be _him_," Don tagged on.

"Master Splinter? Any chance this is just another mystical attack?" Mikey asked.

"Mystical what?" Alex asked.

"Long story," Don told her.

"No my son, this is real!" Splinter answered. "All too real."

"The Shredder? But the Utrom sentenced him to exile," Don said.

"Yeah, well, it didn't take," Raph replied.

"We don't, you know, have a way to do that whole "Beam me up, Scotty" thing they did to him, do we?" Alex asked.

"I wish," Mikey said.

The Elite Ninja poofed before them, keeping in front of the New Shredder to guard, as they spoke. The voice was all too familiar.

"Oroku Saki is gone thanks to you, but the Shredder lives on!"

A distinctly female voice. "No," Anna muttered. "It can't be…"

The Shredder took their helmet off, and her black hair tumbled out to her shoulders. It was, of course, the daughter of the Shredder. It was Kurai.

"Kurai?" Don gaped.

"So, the daughter of Oroku Saki has become the Shredder," Splinter stated. "Why?"

"Honor demands it, Splinter-san," she answered. "After you helped the vial Utrom exile my father, I vowed to avenge his honor!"

"You dare speak of honor!" Splinter accused. "Your father murdered my Master Yoshi. Your father had no honor."

"You will pay for your lies!" Kurai yelled. "All of you! Where is Leonardo?"

"Why do you want to know?" Alex demanded.

"That is none of your concern," Kurai said. "You'll be dead."

"He ain't here," Raph answered.

"You know," Mikey said, moving to the front of the group. "You just missed him! But if you leave right now, we'll let him know you stopped by."

"You mock me," Kurai observed. "The fact you still live mocks me." She put her father's helmet back on. "That all ends. _Now_. Destroy them! Leave no one alive!"

The circle of foot around them moved in, and the group was forced to jump up to the second floor to get away. After that, each individual was forced to go off on their own to avoid the ever attacking Foot Soldiers. It was a miracle Alex was able to dodge attacks from the Elite. _I'm so glad they're not my brothers anymore though_, Alex thought as she did so. _At least I know they're not them, and they're safe_.

"Master Splinter!" Mikey yelled out.

Alex turned, her eyes landing on the three brothers with their father across the lair. Don had ahold of Splinter, supporting the injured rat. Alex's heart sank. Alex had never seen Master Splinter hurt like that before. The last time he had been like that, Alex had been in captivity by the Shredder.

"We have to get out of here," Don said.

"Uh, easier said than done," Mikey said.

"Donnie, you take Master Splinter with you. We split up, get out, and hook back up again topside," Raph instructed like a good natural born leader. "Got it?"

"Got it!" Alex answered, taking off.

While the others were still going after the guys, Alex slipped out through one of the holes that the Foot had broken in through, and navigated through the sewers until she found pegs to a manhole cover overhead.

Alex escaped, and made sure nobody was following her as she navigated her way through the city. There weren't many places she could go. She couldn't lead the Foot back to her brothers, and she couldn't lead them to April, or Casey. There was only one place she knew where she would be safe to hide out until she could make her way to find the others. She needed rest, and to heal. Then she could be reunited with the others.

If only she knew where they were…

* * *

**Hey guys! It's been a while, huh? Well, here's the chapter, and I hope you guys all liked it. I don't really, but eh, you gotta get this part done for Leo and Alex to be back together for the next. Which they will, I assure you. I've got an upload schedule calendar posted on my profil, so follow the link and you guys can see when it'll be updated. **

Thanks go to the following for their reviews on the previous chapter:

**_Pinnney_ **\- Leo's coming back! Isn't that exciting?

_**dream lighting** _\- I don't think Alex will be in the new movies, unfortunately, but she will be in the 2007 one. That is already half written, tbh.

_**erica. phoenix16 -**_ It was my pleasure.

_**sexy evil nat**_ \- Yeah, and there will be more to come too, I promise. Very soon, actually!

_**Guest** _\- I'm so glad you love Alex's story! It means a lot to me that you're moved by it. Obviously as you see above, I didn't do much between Leo leaving and him coming back, because I honestly just didn't feel like it or having any inspiration to, but I hope it was okay. What I really want is to move on with the next couple chapters, which really get the relationship between the two going. Oh, and never apologize for long reviews. I love them.

_**SkytauriUzumaki**_\- I think Leo handles himself very well.

_**ShadowPheonix121**_\- I'm so glad you like it. I'll always write more, even if there is a hiatus because of writers block. But it won't ever be dropped. I promise.

_**pokemonjkl** _\- Thank you, I did have good holidays. I hope you did as well! I'm sorry this took forever to update!

_**Guest** _\- I'm so glad you like it. I hope this was worth the wait.


	11. Prodigal Son

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything TMNT. I just own Alex and her bros.**

* * *

Chapter 11

"Prodigal Son"

It was unfair to say that his brothers and father took precedence over finding Alex, because it wasn't. It was, however, the the initial instinct of Leonardo to feel. He had to find his family. And Alex was family, but in a much different way than Raph, Mikey, Don, and his father. Tracking down the others was the easiest thing. He could follow the trails, and he knew where they would most likely hide out from the clues.

Alex, on the other hand, was far harder to track. There were no clues, there was no wreckage like the others. She was simply just a ghost. He staked out the apartment where her brothers were living, and there was no sign that they were hiding her, and they looked far more devastated and depressed then they should have if they were pretending.

After getting word from April after discovering the lair in ruins, she told him that his family, and Alex, were all dead. Or, so Kurai claimed. But as of yet, there was no sign of any of them so what other choice was there for them all to believe? Leo wasn't convinced, mostly because of denial, but as he discovered one family member after another, he knew Alex had to be alive somewhere out there.

He just had to find her.

To start off, he made sure she wasn't at Aprils. She wasn't at her brother's, nor the dojo. She wasn't at the school or library, and nor any of her friends places (which took him quite a while to track down seeing as he only knew them by their first names). There was only one place left to look.

The cemetery was eerie, no doubt about that. It always seemed far more peaceful when he was there with Alex. But as he looked for the girl in a last ditch attempt to find her, he couldn't help but let the dread sink of that just maybe, it was too late, and he wouldn't be able to find her.

Kneeling at the foot of her parents gravestones, Leo said a silent pray, asking them to help guide him to where their daughter was. There didn't seem to be an answer as he remained frozen in place for far longer than he could afford to.

Without much hope left, Leo got up and turned to leave the cemetery, but as he spun, his eyes caught a dim light up in the distance, up on the hill overlooking the cemetery. There was where he had said goodbye to Alex before leaving for his training, and that was where they had taken shelter.

"It couldn't hurt to try," Leo muttered as he worked his way up the hill.

The mausoleum was colder than he had remember it, and even though the candle had been burning in the stain glass window for what appeared to be a couple hours, it did very little in brightening up the small room, or heating it.

The light did provide just enough light to prevent him from tripping over the body on the floor on the other side of the stone bench. Kneeling, Leo could clearly see Alex's read hair, and her familiar figure. He placed a hand on her shoulder, and the other on her hair.

"Alex?" he asked gently. He didn't want to scare her. But his attempt failed. Alex remained asleep. It was clear that the events that had transpired took their told on her. She was beaten and exhausted. Not to mention soaking wet. "Alex, can you hear me?"

It was strange. The first reaction wasn't to shake her hand like a man would, like he had done with reuniting with his brothers. No, Leo wanted nothing more than to engulf her in an embrace and never let her go again. He had hurt her far too much, had feared losing her to want something so simple.

Leo pulled her into his arms to hold her. He rocked her gently, rubbing her arms to try and warm her freezing skin up a bit. As she gradually warmed up, her eyes fluttered open and scanned his face. He smiles down at her, so thankful that she was safe and awake with him.

"Leo?" she asked softly, barely above a whisper. "Am I dreaming?"

Leo shook his head and pushes some of her hair out of her face. "No, I'm here. I'm real."

A soft sigh escaped her lips, and her head nestled into the crook of his neck. "I knew you'd come back," she muttered, her eyes closing again.

"Are you hurt?" he asked. He stood up, carrying her bridal style so she wouldn't have to exert more energy. From what he could she, she wasn't too bad. Some cuts and bruises here and there, but she was mainly just cold and exhausted.

She tiredly shook her head against his neck, nestling as much as she could to steal the warmth he was providing her, which of course, made Leo blush. Thankfully she wasn't looking at his face or she'd notice, and that would just embarrass him even more.

"Good, I don't know what I would've done if you were," Leo said. "I'm so sorry I wasn't here."  
"You have….nothing to apologize for," she told him. "You're back. That's all that matters. Did you find the others?"

"I did," he informed her. "Everybody's okay. You were the last to find, and you did a hell of a job hiding."

She smiled against his neck, which sent a shiver through his entire body. "Leo?"

"Yeah?"

"Welcome home."

Alex slumped, putting more of her weight into him. He smiles softly and kissed the top of her head, as she would never know. She had fallen asleep. He was just happy she was okay, and that she wasn't angry with him.

Leo had his Alex back. He also realized that she finally had her Leo back as well.

* * *

**I know this one was really short, and I know that sucks after being so long without having a chapter, but I just wanted to leave their reunion simple and sweet, just like the two of them. Next chapter will have a lot more interactions between the two as they set up the new Lair, so I hope you guys are excited for that! Please leave a review and let me know what you think, and don't forget there is a link to the schedule up on my profile!**

Thanks go to the following for their reviews on the previous chapter:

_**Pinnney**_\- I'm glad you liked it and it made your morning!

**_dream lighting_** \- Yes, I am back. I'm trying to be a lot better with my upload schedule and forcing myself through writers blocks. Yes, plural. I'm making on exception and posting this on your birthday, just for you, so happy birthday!

_**erica. phoenix16** _\- You are most welcome!

_**SkytauriUzumaki**_ \- Yes, I am back, and I'm hoping to be better with uploading and writing. I hope you liked seeing Leo, even if it was very short. And yes, Alex will be in Turtles Forever, as well as the 2007 TMNT movie.

_**pokemonjkl**_\- Thank you! I'm glad to be back! lol. Of course Leo will, he's just protective off his family.


	12. All Home Together

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything TMNT. I just own Alex and her bros.**

* * *

Chapter 12

"All Home Together"

The new Lair was obscenely larger than the old one. While the old one was familiar and felt like home, everybody was excited to be in the new one. There was so much work to be done, but with work came accomplishment. And even though this place was not Alex's home, she spent more time there than April's place, or even her brothers' place. The Lair felt like home because of the people that lived there.

Alex brought homemade subs to supply strength, and homecoming presents for them as well. She felt like she was repeating present ideas, but since pretty much everything was lost, they needed the things they already had. Raph got a new punching bag. Mikey got some comics. Don got some spare parts from some of Alex's old electronics. And Leo, of course, got candles and incense.

Mike was annoyed that he got the smallest room, but ignoring his complaints were easy enough. He was a bit more tolerable once he got the comics though. His collection once again started.

Alex just chuckled as she went into Leo's new room, carrying the box of supplies for him, as well as two subs for lunch. Most of Leo's room was all set up. He was pretty minimalistic anyway, so all he needed was his mat to sleep, an area to store swords, and a space to meditate. She assumed the incense would go by his mediation area wherever he wanted that, but the candles she figured would be shoved into a closet somewhere unless she kind of forced him to use them.

Alex knocked the best she could with her hands full, and walked into his room. Leo was standing in front of the far wall organizing his swords. When he heard her come in, she turned and smiled. She smiled back and set down the box.

"Hey," she greeted.

"Hey," he repeated.

"I've brought presents and food," she told him, taping the box with her foot, and holding up the paper bag with the meatball subs.

"You are a lifesaver," Leo moaned. He sat down with Alex on the floor, and silently, the two started to eat together. "God, this is so good, Alex!"

Alex chuckled. "Wanna know what would make it even better?"

"Cheese?" Leo asked.

Alex rolled her eyes. "Yes, but that's not what I was going for." Alex reached into the box and pulled out some of the candles she brough.

"No!" Leo laughed.

"Yes!" she retorted back with a giggle.

Alex lit some of them and put them around them. "See, now it'll smell nice because of the food, and because of the candles!"

"You're trying to make this romantic," Leo accused.

"And what if I am?" she retorted back shyly. "Candles are comfortable, and if they're romantic, why not that too? They relax me and make me feel at home."

Leo nodded and took another bite. "You keep buying them for me and I keep using them so yeah, I guess they make me feel comfortable now too."

"Good," Alex said with a bright smile. "Plus, someone needs to teach you how to be romantic." Leo rolled his eyes at that and just kept eating. "There's more in the box, and incense too to replace what you lost."

"Oh, thank you. That's very kind of you," Leo said.

"It's the very least I can do," Alex said with a gently smile. "Plus, I like getting you things."

"Well, I like getting you things too…" Leo got up and walked over to his backpack which he had taken on his trip. He pulled out a long stroll and turned around to hand it to Alex. I got it for you in Japan. It's a scroll from an up and coming Japanese Calligrapher. It says love…"

Alex took the scroll and carefully opened it. The gentle, masterful brush strokes were absolutely careful and beautiful. "Oh Leo," Alex said. "This is beautiful. Thank you so much!" Alex got up from her spot on the floor and made her way to the turtle. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hid her face in his neck. "I love it."

Leo was very thankful that Alex wasn't looking up at him, for his cheeks were a deep red, and his bit his lip nervously. "I"m glad you like it. I wanted to get something to make it up to you for how terrible I was to you before I left…"

"I told you, you didn't have to do anything. As long as you were sorry, and bettered yourself, you already had more forgiveness," Alex told him.

"I know, but I wanted to. You're not technically a family, like my brothers, so you'e not obligated to put up with me. You could've left, but you never did...So thank you, Alex. Really. Having you in my life makes it so much better."

Alex just smiled back, her cheeks the color of her hair. "I wouldn't have it any other way," Alex said. "Thanks, Leo."

"You are very welcome."

* * *

**Hey everyone! Sorry for the shorter chapter. It's a lot of simple fluff, and the next chapter is pretty much what everybody has been waiting for. I hope you all liked it and please leave a review to let me know what you think! **

Thanks go to the following for their reviews on the previous chapter:

_**XxWolfLord95xX**_\- Yes, we are back!

_**dream lighting -**_ I hope you liked the chapter. And there is a schedule link on my profile if you want to know when this story will be updated.

**_ 16_**\- You are most welcome!

**_sexy evil nat_**\- Yes, more romance to come! I promise!

_**pokemonjkl**_\- Yes, Leo is back and trust me, he's not going anywhere! Not until like 2007 movie.

_**SkytauriUzumaki**_\- Lol, I'm glad you like the sweetness of ALeo. Hope you liked the chapter!


	13. Normal

**Disclaimer: I don't own TMNT. I just own Alex and her bros. **

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Chapter 13

"Normal"

"Lex!" a familiar male voice called out from behind her.

The girl froze out of habit. It was strange having Fred back in her life. Of course she had missed him, but he had been gone so long and she had worried so much about him and why he had joined the Shredder, that she didn't completely know what to expect when she finally got him back.

She knew things wouldn't completely go back to normal, but she didn't quite know what to expect would be different. Would they still talk? Would they still be best friends? Would he hate her guts? Would she hate him? Would the guys freak out if they knew she was still friends with him?

"Lex!" he called again once he finally caught up to where she was.

"Hey Fred," she greeted slightly awkwardly with a hesitant smile. "What's up?"

"Look, I know things have been rocky between us lately, but I really want to change that. You're still my best friend. And I miss us."

Alex smiled wider this time. She missed him too. She missed how she used to go to his house, just her and him, to watch horrible scary movies and laugh at the parts that were supposed to be "horrifying." She watching actually scary movies, and having to spend the night at his house on the couch, but eventually moving up to his room because she was a little creeped out to be by herself.

The redhead missed having lunch at school together and talking about how much they disliked their teachers, and working on English and science projects together. She missed helping him in math, despite it being her worst subject. Alex missed just being able to sit next to him, in a comfortable silence, not having to say anything because having him there with her was enough to make her happy.

The girl could have cried thinking about all of that, however, she had done far too much crying. "I miss us too," she said.

He looked across the street to a coffee shop and motioned for her to follow him. Alex had to get to the 2nd Time Around to work, but she thought April would understand if she was trying to work things out with Fred. April had always liked Fred. She had even tried to get them to date, at one point. However, Alex never really thought she liked Fred that way. They were best friends.

Fred got a black coffee while grabbing Alex a bottle of water, remembering how she liked to be healthy. They grabbed a table in the back, away from the counter and other people so they could talk by themselves.

Fred fiddled with his cup, staring at it as she spoke, "When I was stuck in that place, that half conscious place, I realized everything I had done was for the wrong reasons."

"That's all that matters," Alex said. "As long as you're sorry for what you did, that's all that matters to _me_."

"It still doesn't make it right though," he said. "I just want you to know why I did it."

"If that's what you need, go ahead," Alex urged.

"When your parents died, you pulled back so much," Fred said. "I didn't know what to do, you know? I couldn't say, 'I know how you feel' or anything like that because I don't. So I tried to act like nothing was wrong and just be there like normal in case you needed me. I thought that if you wanted to talk about it, you'd come to me if you wanted.

"Then you started that internship with Stocktronics and you were always working. After that, it was helping April with setting up shop or working there. I thought you were trying to avoid us, or something. I thought you were trying to avoid _me_."

"No!" Alex protested. "I'm so sorry I made you think that way, Fred. I never meant for that to happen. So much happened after my parents died. Life was just going out of control and sometimes I didn't want to hang out because, you know, I like my alone time. But Fred, I'd never _avoid_ you."

"I know," he said. "But then I was approached by Oroku Saki. He knew I did martial arts and offered me a scholarship."

"Why didn't you tell me you were into it anyways?" Alex asked. "I mean, it's awesome. We could have done stuff together."

"I got into it because you talked so highly of it," he said. "I didn't want to take that away from you."

"Fred, I would've never thought that."

"I know, I was dumb. I'm dumb a lot."

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am. You have to admit that."

"Okay, sometimes you are," Alex laughed. "But please, continue."

"Right," he said, gulping. He looked up at her with his warm eyes, pleading her to understand and not hate him. "The Shredder showed me pictures of you with the turtles. You were spending so much time with them and you seemed so close to them. I – I was hurt. I thought you were replacing me.

"I was angry. Then the Shredder brought out that ray thing and you know the rest."

"Yeah, that thing messes with your mind. I was messed up for a while. I have no idea how I was able to hold out as long as I did before the Utrom helped me out."

"That's because you're the strongest of us all," he said, taking Alex's hand. "You're kind hearted and you see the best in everyone. You're physically and mentally strong. If I were you and went through everything you've gone through, I'd be in a mental hospital upstate."

"I'm just really good with weird," Alex laughed.

"No, Alex, it's not that," Fred said. "It's because you're the best, smartest, loving person I've ever met."

Alex blushed. Where had that come from? She cleared her throat, looking down at the table. "Thanks."

"Lex," Fred said. He placed a hand under her chin, making her look up at him. "I – I want to try something. I mean, we don't have to if you don't want to, but I want to give it a shot." Alex saw him gulp.

_Please tell me he's not…_

"Maybe we could try, like your Aunt said. I want to try to be more than just best friends," he finished. "I had thought about it a lot while I was stuck there. Having to fight you was the hardest thing I've ever had to do and I never want to do that again. It made me really think about and come to realize how much I appreciate having you as my best friend. I really do like you, Lex."

She had the sudden urge to remove her hand from his. "Fred," Alex started.

"No, I don't want you to answer me now," he insisted. "Think about it, please?"

Alex had no idea how to reply. She couldn't just flat out say no. That would kill him. But she couldn't say yes either. She didn't even know how she felt about the matter. She supposed she could tell him she'd think about it. Yes, that would be the best thing to do because she really _did_ have to think about it.

"Yeah, I'll think about it," she told him quietly.

"Really?" he asked excitedly. "Thanks, Lex."

Fred stood up, pulling her with him. "I've got to head out and meet my mom for something, but get back to me tonight or in the next couple of days, okay?"

"Yeah," she answered.

He pulled her into a tight hug, wrapping his arms around her much smaller body. Alex hesitantly wrapped her arms around him too. He felt so warm. She was happy to have him back in her life, but was it in _that_ way? She missed how comforting it was to have him around. She missed his free natured self.

Alex felt a blush creep onto her face as he pulled back, grabbing his coffee. He smiled down at her with his always brilliant white smile and said, "I'll be waiting by the phone, Lex. Please, don't take too long, but don't rush. Really think about it."

"Okay," she said.

"Bye," he said, leaning in and kissed the girl on the cheek. He rested there for a couple seconds before backing up and leading out of the coffee shop.

The girl placed her hand on her cheek. She knew she was blushing at least twelve shades of red. She sighed thinking, _What have you gotten yourself into, Alex?_

* * *

"I don't know what to do, April," Alex admitted after telling her what happened that afternoon after school. "I mean, Fred's always been my best friend. _You_ always thought we'd be a good couple. What do you think?"

"What do I think?" April asked. She place a hand on the girl's shoulder comfortingly. "I think you need to figure out how you feel. Who is it you like?"

"What do you mean?" Alex asked.

"I think Fred's right, there always has been potential with him and you being together, but potential has to go into trial first. Chemistry is another thing altogether."

"Chemistry like you and Casey?" Alex said. April was about to protest, but Alex interrupted. "Come on, April. I saw you two when you first met. Sure he annoyed you, but I could tell you two liked each other."

"Okay, fine," she sighed. "Yes, chemistry. And I know you have chemistry with a certain green ninja."

Alex froze. _Chemistry with Leo?_ She blushed. _How did April know that?_

"I see the way you look at him, Alex," April continued. "It's undeniable. There's something there. But you can't have it both ways. You either have to give it a shot with Fred, and leave whatever it is you feel and have with Leo behind or explore what you have with Leo and try to stay friends with Fred."

"This is so confusing," Alex admitted_. I don't want to hurt anybody._

"Nobody ever said love was easy, Alex," April said. "You have to ask yourself the question, would you rather give it a try with Fred, or give it a shot with Leo?" April moved right in front of the girl and said, "But it all comes down to who it is you actually love, Alex. You have to figure out that first. Because it's not fair to Fred or Leo. And it's not fair to you."

April walked to the front door and flipped the sign, telling anybody walking by that they were closed. "Why don't you go out and get some air to think? I'm going out with Casey."

"Yeah, that sounds good," Alex said. "I've got training with the guys soon anyways."

Alex picked up her bag off the floor and started to head to the door.

"Alex," April said, stopping her. Alex turned to look at her aunt. "Don't worry too much about it, okay?"

Alex didn't say anything to that. She just turned and left.

* * *

"Come on, Alex," Leo said. "You're slowing down."

There was a kick to the chest and Alex fell down onto her back. Before she had the chance to move, Leo was on top of her, both swords pressed to her neck preventing her from fighting back any further. He looked down at her through his mask, curious and slightly worried. He had never seen her fight so badly before.

"Are you okay, Alex?" Leo asked, putting his swords away. He held out his hand to help the girl up to her feet.

Alex took his hand, but since her mind wasn't "present" she tripped over her manriki chain at her feet, falling onto Leo's chest. Her hand rested on the hard shell as she slowly looked up at his masked face, her face as red as Raph's mask and temper.

"My mind's elsewhere, I guess," she sighed, looking down. She stepped back and went to go sit against the wall. She was grateful that everyone else had already gone to bed. Alex had arrived late for training that night, seeing as she was lost in thought from what happened with Fred. She was just lucky Leo was willing to spare with her still.

Alex could feel Leo's eyes on her as she took her mask off and rubbed her face. She had never been more confused about anything in her life, not even when her brothers were working for the Shredder and she was trying to figure out the reason why. She brought her knees up to her chest, hiding her face in them as she wrapped her arms around them.

"Something's really bothering you, isn't it?" Leo asked, sliding up to sit next to her.

Alex's reply was a sigh and a slight nod of her head.

"You know you can tell me what's wrong, right?" he asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. It felt so comforting and warm, which almost made her chest hurt even more. _Why was he making to so much more difficult?_

_Well, I was going to have to decide sooner or later and tell them_, Alex thought. She took in a deep breath. She had planned on slowly letting it out, but it came out in one short huff instead. "Fred came to talk to me today," she said.

"Oh," Leo said. Though Alex wasn't looking at him, she could tell he had tensed up. "W-what did he want to talk about?"

"He, uh, told me why he ended up joining the Shredder and what he thought about when he was trapped there," Alex was staring off into the river water in the middle of the room where the bridge was.

"What'd he think about?

"Me, mostly," she answered. "He said that he missed me. Fred said he came to realize just how much I mean to him. That he, uh, he wants to give us a shot." Alex looked down and buried her head into her legs. "He wants us to go out."

There was a long pause. Neither of them were moving. Alex was trying to figure out what the silence meant, while Leo was trying to process what was going on.

"Is, uh, that what you want, Alex?" Leo asked, his voice sounding a little hoarse and forced to stay steady.

She didn't answer that right away. "April said I have to make a decision. It's not fair to Fred, to the guy I like or to me."

"So your-" he stopped himself and looked down at the girl, making her look up at him. "Wait, who else is there?"

That made Alex give a loud chuckle. Before she knew what she was saying she said, "You're blind, aren't you, Leonardo?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked nervously.

"Come on, Leo," Alex pressed, moving her body so she was facing Leo, her legs no longer up to her chest. "You're smart, I think you know what I'm talking about. I don't think I'd bring this conversation up with just anybody, especially the others." _The guys would never let me live it down. Or you for that matter._

"So now what?" Leo asked. His eyes, though behind the mask, looking nervous and scared. This was all new territory for him, just as much as it was for Alex. "Are you weighing out the pros and cons?"

"I did that earlier," she admitted. "I think I've been doing that ever since I got Fred back, just subconsciously."

"You know, with him you can finally be a normal girl. Have a normal life."

_Well, at least he knows that I like him and that I was talking about hi- Wait, what?_ "Who ever said anything about normal?"

"You've been through so much stuff, a lot of it messed up. A lot of it was because of us. Because of _me_."

"It's because of you that April and I are still here today, because you saved us from the Mousers."

Leo went on as if he hadn't heard any of what Alex just said. "You, of all people, deserve to have some normalcy. You deserve to have friends that won't get you into fist fights, or the potential for serious injuries. You deserve to be able to walk around with them freely up on the surface, going out to eat, going to movies, doing normal teenage things. You deserve to have a normal boy-"

"_But I don't want normal!_" she screamed, surprising Leo and herself.

Hearing him say all of those things had upset her. Their conversation was upsetting her. Was he trying to say that he wasn't good enough for her? That he didn't want to give it a shot? That he didn't have feelings for her? That he didn't think she really understood her own feelings and that she was just a little confused?

Alex had been having those feelings almost ever since she met the guys. Ever since she met Leo. Yeah, maybe she hadn't really completely figured out what those feelings and thoughts were unlike that day, but that was because there _had_ been so much messed up stuff going on. Alex was sometimes dense when it came to her own feelings, but when she _knew_ what she was feelings, that _was_ what she was feeling. She wasn't imagining it.

Alex knew what her choice was.

"Leo, for as long as I can remember, my normal has _never been normal_. I'm a freaking ninja, for Pete's sake. My new master is a _giant talking mutant rat_. My father figure is that _same rat._ My _best friends_ are _teenage mutant ninja turtles_. I live with my aunt that's dating a _whack job vigilante_ that goes out with _us_ to save other people almost every night.

"Nothing in my life is _normal_, Leonardo, and what gave you the idea that I _wanted_ it to be society's definition of _normal_? If I wanted it to be that, I would have left and not looked back. But this," she opened her arms, making reference to everything she pointed out and the fact that she was standing in their new Lair, "this is _my_ life. _My_ normal. And I wouldn't give up any of it. Because giving it up would mean leaving behind my family and my friends.

"But if you don't want to give it a shot, Leo. Okay. This is as much of a choice for you as it is for me. But I've already made up my mind. Now I'm just waiting on you." Alex moved closer to him, taking his face in her hands, making him look straight into her eyes. "If you don't want to do this, just say so. We can go back to whatever it was we were before. We can still be friends and do all the crazy stuff we do together. I can try to ignore my feelings because that'd be easier than giving up on our friendship.

"The truth is, Leo. I don't want normal. I want _you_."

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**So Alex has FINALLY confessed her feelings for Leo! Whether or not they actually get together you'll have to wait until next time for! I'm so mean lol. Anyway, I hope you guys like the chapter! Let me know what you think! **

Thanks go to the following for their reviews on the previous chapter:

_**erica. phoenix16**_\- You are very welcome.

_**SkytauriUzumaki**_\- They'll kiss eventually...maybe...if Leo says yes. Which he very well may not...lol


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